


Come From Away

by Colorora, DarkrystalSky, ReverieRiver, SiobhanRobotnik, Sydy



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Gen, angus and one of his dads try to fix that, choo choo here comes the angst ride, collaborative project, the universe where everything that could've gone bad went bad, this was born from a roleplay and then adapted into fic, we're all angst monkeys and we feed on that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 05:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15574686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colorora/pseuds/Colorora, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkrystalSky/pseuds/DarkrystalSky, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReverieRiver/pseuds/ReverieRiver, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiobhanRobotnik/pseuds/SiobhanRobotnik, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sydy/pseuds/Sydy
Summary: A year after Story&Song, Angus and Kravitz are tossed by Istus in an alternate timeline where Lucretia never used the Voidfish, the Relics still plague the land and the Seven Birds are scattered and alone. It's up to them to fix it.





	1. Wherever We Are

**Author's Note:**

> _TW: panick attack, taphophobia, self-harm, addiction_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Somewhere in between_   
>  _Your life_   
>  _And your work_   
>  _When the world may be falling apart_   
>  _And you think_   
>  _I'm alone_   
>  _I'm alone  
>  _And I'm so damn helpless__

Choice and fate: two distinct currents, splitting time like a pair of rivers that flow together towards a sea called destiny. Although their destinations are similar, they branch into a myriad of stories through small, critical moments in time that are capable of changing the course remarkably.

When Lup left, it was without warning or fanfare. She simply disappeared, leaving only a short, handwritten note behind—but she didn’t leave alone.

Without his sister and his brother-in-law, Taako was alone in his endless search to find his family. Ultimately, he was so wrapped up in anguish that Lucretia didn’t have the heart to proceed with her plan.

What was the point, really? Either way, Taako would be alone, but if Lucretia continued with her plan of redaction, Taako wouldn’t have the precious memories of his family to keep him going.

Lucretia—well, Lucretia made a painful choice. She kept her story close and those left of her family closer as the world below them was shattered by the cruelest war it had ever experienced.

Endless forests stretched in the east, devouring once-lively settlements in tendrils and roots. Entire towns were transmuted overnight: streets once full of life were converted to precious metals, gemstones, even peppermint as far as the eye could see. There were tales of monsters born from the imaginations of the cruel, lurking in the depths of the sea and atop the highest mountains. Circles of black glass scarred the lands where great battles were fought, appearing every few months and burning another army into ashes.

Not everyone sought the Relics, of course. In remote, secluded places, people formed small communities that did their best to survive, building their homes in caves or in settlements surrounded by high walls, hiding from the destruction and greed that threatened to consume the world.

The Goddess of Fate looked down on her tapestry, battered and scorched and coming unraveled, and made a decision that would prove to be monumental. 

_ No more. _

From a tapestry shining with love and joy, Istus plucked two threads that gleamed as bright as stars and sewed them into the ruined tapestry before her. Although she was an omnipresent goddess, Istus could only hope that this one would be saved.

-

Angus McDonald, twelve-year old and boy detective extraordinaire, was winding down after a long, hard soccer practice. There was a case that he looked forward to starting in the morning, so before heading to Taako’s home for dinner, he decided to crash at Magnus’ much-closer residence and take a nap. There was a room reserved for him in almost every Bird’s home, so it was really just a matter of where he chose to stay.

Magnus was outside and talking with a neighbor when Angus arrived, but he still managed to grin at Angus when he noticed the boy sprinting towards the house. Two of Magnus’ big dogs started circling around his ankles as if to greet him.

Angus waved to Magnus with a cheery “Hello, sir!” and then immediately made a beeline for his room, practically collapsing on the bed. “Kravitz, take me now,” he muttered, face pressed tightly against the pillow.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of stale air. Wait, that wasn’t right. Angus blinked in disbelief. For a moment, he wondered if the power was out because he was surrounded by complete darkness, but that wouldn’t explain the stuffy quality of the air.

“Sir?” Angus tried to call out, but he started coughing almost immediately. His throat was suddenly sore and dry, even though he’d been feeling fine a moment earlier.

Maybe he had fallen victim to some kind of spell, and his body was transported somewhere else while he slept. To test this hypothesis, he extended his hands to the side, but they quickly collided with a smooth, wooden surface. He tried to sit up, and his forehead painfully met the same fate.

With growing panic, Angus moved to explore the space around him, only to realize that he was trapped inside a  _ very  _ small container. It was big enough that he could lie in it comfortably, but his movements were extremely restrained. It  almost felt like…

He remembered reading something like this in a Caleb Cleveland novel, where a woman was betrayed by her lover as she attempted to re-enact the Romeo and Juliet trick and the traitor left her to be buried alive.

Angus’ surroundings felt indisputably like a coffin. He closed his eyes again.  _ Don’t panic, _ he told himself repeatedly. If he panicked, he’d just use up more air. Screaming wouldn’t do any good either.

When he’d finally calmed down, Angus started thinking of a plan. Angus was smart. He could get himself out of this. Average person was 66 liters, average coffin was 886 liters. There were around 820 liters of air in the coffin with him. Breathing completely normally. Angus would use 23 liters per hour,  meaning he had about thirty hours to get out of this if he played his cards right. It was more than enough.

Angus grabbed the bottom of his shirt—weirdly enough, the clothes he had on didn’t feel familiar in the slightest—and pulled it over his head. That would serve as a mask to make sure he wouldn’t breathe in dirt.

It seemed that he was buried in a cheap coffin—thanks, family!—but at least it would lessen the difficulty of creating a hole.

(In the Relic Wars, no precious material would be wasted on something that would end up in the ground forever, much less a coffin for a child. Of course, Angus had no way of knowing that.)

Angus easily kicked a hole through the middle of the coffin, figuring it to be the weakest structurally. A bit of soil leaked through the small crack that formed, relieving some of the pressure the ground was putting on the lid. Angus pushed the dirt to the bottom of the coffin and repeated, eventually making the hole big enough to push himself through.

Patiently and slowly, he started digging upwards. He had no way to figure out exactly how deep he was buried, but since he had well and truly proved his coffin hypothesis, he would guess about ten feet. After what felt like hours later, his hands finally broke the surface. Angus let out a relieved sob before pulling himself out and taking a grateful breath of fresh air.

It was night and his glasses were dirtier than they’d ever been from the experience, so it took Angus a while to truly take in the unfamiliar surroundings: as far as he could see, the barren ground was littered with hundreds and hundreds of makeshift graves stretching to the horizon.

Angus let himself fall, his back to the ground, and took in a few shuddering breaths.  _ Now _ he allowed himself to panic. His entire body shook like a leaf beside the large hole in the ground that he just dug himself out of.

“Angus!” a familiar voice called. Shooting up to his feet, Angus nearly  _ screamed _ as he frantically looked around for the source, right up until his eyes landed on a familiar black robe.

-

Although his skull form made it hard to tell, Kravitz was pretty pleased as he watched Lup and Barry pummel the latest necromancer fool into the ground.

The in-laws were annoying to work with in the beginning, but Kravitz had to admit that his job had gotten significantly easier since Lup and Barry had joined the retinue of the Raven Queen. He also found himself enjoying his life much more than he had ever hoped to. Kravitz had a husband that he loved immeasurably, and a large family of people who couldn’t care less that he was the literal embodiment of death and loved him anyway.

“I’ll leave the rest to you two, then,” Kravitz told his partners as he saw Lup tear out the necromancer’s soul and open a portal to the Astral Plane. She grinned and gave him a thumbs up before disappearing through the rift.

Kravitz dusted off his clothes, let his appearance shift to the handsome face he regularly wore at home, and teleported to the busy streets of Neverwinter. He knew that Taako had been extremely busy up at the school this week, and therefore, he would be exhausted come evening, so Kravitz was determined to make dinner and surprise both Taako and Angus.

In Neverwinter, Kravitz purchased the ingredients he needed, as well as a large bouquet of flowers to decorate the center of the table. He teleported back home and temporarily deposited the groceries and flowers on the kitchen counter before heading towards their bedroom, door left slightly ajar, to check on his (most likely napping) husband.

And then the door disappeared—or, to be more precise, the entire house did. Instead of his home, Kravitz was standing in the ruins of an abandoned castle. Beyond the crumbled walls and a few still-aloft pillars, he recognized a forest that he vaguely recalled as being a pilgrimage of several necromantic cults south of the continent.

It wasn’t likely that this was a trap. There were no signs of any magical symbols or runes that could’ve summoned him. Was it a prank? A teleportation spell that Taako put on the door to stop people from waking him up?

Confused, Kravitz dug through his pockets to get his Stone of Farspeech, but he couldn't find it anywhere. Realizing he left it on the kitchen counter next to the groceries, he let out a colorful expletive.   
  
Kravitz summoned his scythe. He was about to open yet another portal to take him home when he felt a familiar sensation at the back of his head. It wasn’t common for his Goddess to contact him directly, but when she did, Kravitz never failed to answer. Maybe this unusual summon had something to do with the mysterious teleportation?

Kravitz extended an hand, palm up, and summoned the Book of Bounties. Without him needing to turn the pages, they flipped on their own and stopped on a certain page, on a certain name. The one the Raven Queen pointed out to him.

“Is there something weird with this—” Kravitz wondered out loud, assuming his Queen could hear him, but the words died in his throat when his eyes actually landed on the words.

_ Name: Angus McDonald. Full years since birth: Twelve. Death count: One. Times visiting the Astral Plane: One. Currently in: the Prime Material Plane. _ _   
_ _   
_ "What in the name of Pan's holy goatee is  __ this ?!" Kravitz exclaimed with a grimace.

His Book was telling him that Angus McDonald, Taako’s kid in all but name, had died and escaped from the Astral Plane? The mere concept was ridiculous, especially because Kravitz had seen the kid in question that very morning. Angus was supposed to be at a soccer practice near Magnus’ house that afternoon; what kind of trouble could he have gotten into?

Kravitz dismissed the Book. Instead of heading home, he opened a portal to the Hammer & Tails, Magnus’ house and dog-training facility, only to find himself on top of an empty hill, with no sign that there had ever been a building there. He looked around, confused and getting a bit scared. 

"What is going on?" he murmured, voice wavering slightly as he took another look at the bounty on Angus. Where was he? The Hammer & Tails had seemingly disappeared, and without knowing where the kid was, there was only one way to get close to his location.

Summoning the Book again, Kravitz let the Bounty on Angus guide him towards his location. He sliced down another portal and stepped through, looking around at the unfamiliar view.

The dim light and barren land turned the immense graveyard into a disturbing sight, more so than it would’ve been under a usual set of circumstances. A quick look at the stars told him that he wasn’t far from Neverwinter, but Kravitz had never heard of such a large graveyard nearby. Maybe it was built after the Hunger’s attack?

In this miserable landscape, there were no living beings in sight, not even of the animal variety, so Kravitz’s eyes immediately darted towards the only source of movement, several yards away.

Kravitz started running towards the small grey bundle of dirty clothes, which revealed itself to be a small, dirt-stained, yet fancy boy, who was heaving on the ground. 

“Angus!” Kravitz called, and the boy immediately shot up to his feet. His eyes landed on Kravitz just as the Reaper finally caught up to him. The boy looked absolutely terrified, so Kravitz, without as much as a second thought, dismissed his scythe and cloak and kneeled down to embrace him. 

“What’s going on? What are you doing here, Angus?” Kravitz asked, pressing the boy for answers while simultaneously trying to reassure him.

“I—I don’t know!” Angus’s voice was broken and interrupted by frequent sobs. “I woke up and—and I had to dig myself out—out of a coffin!” It took him awhile to get the whole sentence out, between the stuttering and the searching for words.

Kravitz let Angus go in order to examine the hole in the ground. He looked again at the boy.

"This has to be a joke..." Kravitz said. He stood up and walked towards the tombstone, brushing away the dirt only to uncover the same name that appeared in his book.

Angus McDonald.   
Beloved son and grandson.

"A very cruel joke, maybe," he murmured. Kravitz turned back towards Angus. "Come on, kiddo, let's get you home. I'll have Taako make you something warm while I try to figure out what's going on."

Angus was still shaking, but he nodded with determination. “That sounds like a logical course of action. And warm food sounds amazing right now…”

Kravitz smiled and put a hand on Angus shoulder, partially wrapping him up in his coat before he summoned his scythe and cut a portal to…  _ home? _ The location was right, he was sure of it, but the house where he'd been living with Taako for the past year was in ruins. It was uninhabited and dusty, and frankly, it looked like it would crumble to the ground at any moment.

Angus spoke before Kravitz could process what he was seeing. “Where’s-—where’s Taako, sir?” he asked weakly.

"I don't—" Kravitz’s eyes darted around in panic. This was the right place—the house even had the little green water faucet that Magnus's dog Johann adored—but it looked like no one had lived there for a very, very long time.  
  
Kravitz looked at the kid. "Angus, what's the last thing you remember?"

“I went to take a nap at Magnus’ house after a really long soccer practice.” Angus stuck close to Kravitz, nails digging in the feathers of his cloak.

"On the 6th of Eleasis, right?"

Angus nodded.

"I was  _ just here _ . This isn't a time spell or anything; the stars..." 

Kravitz frowned. There was something weird in the night sky, something he couldn't quite understand...   
  
And then it dawned on him. "Where's the Bureau of Benevolence? Where's the Moonbase?"

Angus’ head shot up and Kravitz saw the exact same look of panicked realization he was probably wearing himself. “It’s not there! Should… let’s try and go into town?” Angus squeaked. “It’s late... we can get info there... I didn’t die, did I? I didn’t die in my sleep, right?”

Kravitz patted his head reassuringly. He wanted to comfort him, but… Angus  _ had  _ died and somehow came back to life. The bounty wouldn't have appeared otherwise.

"You're here now, Angus. You're going to be safe," Kravitz decided to say in the end. "Let's go to town, shall we?"   
  
He opened a portal to Goldcliff. Kravitz was beginning to tire, with the recent mission and the quick succession of portals he had summoned in the last few minutes. After this, he would need to sleep before he could muster the strength to open another shortcut. When he looked up, though, he didn't see the tall golden buildings of Goldcliff. Instead, he found himself in the heart of a rich and luscious forest, with trees so tall they obscured the sky.

Angus looked around. “What…?”

"I'm sorry, I'm—" Kravitz looked around, absolutely appalled. "I have no idea what’s going on with the portals today! It's like the world has gone mad!" 

Kravitz’s panic quickly turned into rage as he shook his scythe like it was a broken remote. He stopped only when he saw Angus’ distress. 

"I'm sorry..." Kravitz said, careful to maintain an even tone. “I...don't know what—I can't open another portal before taking a long rest; do you know any spells to light a fire? I'll, uh… I’ll find somewhere we can sleep."   
  


“I—I know Produce Flame.” Angus affirmed, more thankful than ever for the magic lessons. “It’s kind of cold out here...”   
  


From nearby, there was a loud SNAP followed by a soft “ _ Fuck! _ ”


	2. Darkness and Trees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Into the darkness_   
>  _Stars and the moonlight_   
>  _But all around us_   
>  _Nothing but darkness_   
>  _Out of the windows_   
>  _Into the darkness_   
>  _Darkness and trees_

“Fuck!”

Angus whipped his head around. Kravitz immediately shifted into a defensive position, stepping protectively in front of Angus and summoning his scythe. He directed it towards the source of the unknown voice.

“Who’s there?” Kravitz called.

An elven woman stepped out of the brush, left hand raised in surrender as the other held a longbow. 

“Uh—hail and well met?” she greeted. She smiled awkwardly at the two of them, perhaps in an attempt to appear disarming, but her nervousness was evident in the way that only one of her ears perked up.

Kravitz frowned at the familiar greeting, then glanced at the boy behind him, who  thankfully seemed content to stay there for the moment. Well, with the events of the past few hours, it wouldn’t surprise him if Angus wasn’t in the mood to meet new people. 

“Lower your weapon, please,” Kravitz told the woman, impassible. He watched carefully as she complied, kneeling to set down her bow. 

“There,” the woman said, and rose to her feet with a cautious smile. “Now, I don’t mean to pry into your business, but you two probably shouldn’t be here? Unless you can navigate the forest well, it isn’t exactly safe at night.”

At this, Angus peeked out a bit from behind Kravitz’s frame. The reaper cleared his throat. 

“We—we don’t know exactly where we are,” Kravitz admitted. “I tried to—ah,  _ Teleport _ us to the city of Goldcliff, but I may have fumbled the spell.”

Kravitz only realized as he spoke that he was re-enacting Taako’s “idiot wizard” routine. Admittedly, though, it was a solid plan where fooling strangers was concerned.

The woman seemed to relax slightly. “Oh, no, you’ve reached the right place!” she reassured. “This _is_ Goldcliff—well, the former city of Goldcliff, anyway. It hasn’t really been a city since the Sash.”

This took the two of them by surprise: two words, spoken naturally by a vaguely familiar stranger, words with a meaning that made no sense at all.

“The… sash?” Kravitz asked. “Sorry, do you mean the  _ Gaia _ Sash?”

The elf raised an eyebrow. At one point, she had lowered her arms, and they now rested on her hips. “Yeah, that's the one,” she confirmed.

Kravitz shook his head in growing bewilderment, now tinged with a bit of suspicion. 

“Sorry, but what the  _ fuck  _ are you talking about?” Kravitz exclaimed, the words almost bursting out without his permission. “Just last week, I was in Goldcliff with my husband, and it was a perfectly normal city then!”

“And I investigated a murder in Goldcliff a couple months ago!” Angus supplied, coming to Kravitz's defense. He looked quite puzzled himself, but he was more curious than pissed off.

Kravitz nodded in acknowledgment. The elf  _ had  _ to be fucking with them; there was no other explanation. “What’s more, the actual Goldcliff is in the middle of a desert.  _ This _ ”—he gestured to the thick vegetation around them—“looks like anything but!”

The woman‘s eyes were tinged with concern. “Gotta say, you're a couple of weird fellas. Goldcliff has been like this for almost a decade; it was one of the first cities majorly impacted by a Grand Relic. Have you two been living under a rock?”

“The Grand Relics have been destroyed!” Kravitz exclaimed. “By the Bureau of Balance! You’ve heard the Song!”

“...what?” She tilted her head on confusion. “I mean, I’ve heard songs before. But what’s the Bureau of Balance?”

Kravitz looked at her in growing confusion. It didn't look like she was lying, but none of what she was saying made any sense. He lowered his scythe. "Do you have a Stone of Farspeech?" he asked. Kravitz needed to call Taako. Any Stone would do; he knew his husband’s frequency by heart.

“Where’s the nearest town?” Angus piped up, sounding as distressed as Kravitz.

“Three days from here, if you go by foot,” she said, answering the kid first. She pointed towards the woods. “I set up camp a couple miles in that direction if you two need a place to spend the night. And, yeah, I do have a Stone…”

She digged in one of her numerous pouches to extract a glowing green crystal  that she handed to Kravitz.

“Thanks, ah...” Kravitz hesitated, looking at her.

“Antonia.”

“Thank you, Antonia. I’m Kravitz. Apologies for pointing a weapon at you; your help is much appreciated.”

“No worries. The world is pretty messed up these days; the least good people can do is help one another!” Antonia grinned brightly.

“Three days,” Angus muttered. “I definitely want to rest.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around and focusing on the faint noise of rushing water: there had to be a river or something nearby, which wasn’t bad at all: he didn’t want to spend the night coated in dirt. Also, now that he focused on it, his back hurt tremendously: pangs of sharp, shooting pain rather than a constant ache which was… weird. “I’m Angus McDonald, world’s greatest detective,” he introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you Angus, you too Kravitz. And no worries, I can’t just let you two wander the forest without a guide.” Antonia kneeled in front of the kid.

Kravitz dialed Taako’s Stone of Farspeech frequency. He let it rang for a good minute, but there was no answer. Grimacing, he gave the Stone back to Antonia. It wasn't unusual for Taako to put his on silent and ignore it but he had a bad feeling about all this that wouldn’t go away.

“Is there any water nearby?” Angus asked again. “Even if it’s a little chilly, I need a bath…”

Antonia eyed him curiously. “Yeah, I’ve camped next to a spring. You look like you rolled in mud, what happened?”

Angus averted his eyes and shifted uncomfortably, without answering. Kravitz noticed this and put a hand on Antonia’s shoulder to get her attention. “Sorry, can I ask...just to confirm something, what day is it?”

“6th of Eleasis,” she replied after a moment.

Kravitz sighed. At least one thing made sense.

Kind of.

-

Antonia started leading them through the forest: there didn’t seem to be animals or even insects around, but at one point a  _ tree branch _ lashed towards them, almost as if it was animated. Antonia cut it down masterfully, looking like she’d done something like it many times before and continued down the path, like nothing ever happened.

“Are you ok?” she stopped after a moment when she realized that Angus and Kravitz, flabbergasted, weren’t following her.

“A  _ tree _ just attacked you…” Angus stated, staring at her.

“Oh, yeah, that happens. ‘Don’t stay for too long in Goldcliff or you’ll become part of the forest’ or something, you know?” she said, looking at them for about two seconds before sighing. “Of course you don’t.” She started walking again, this time making sure the two of them were following. “So, what were you two trying to get to Goldcliff for, anyway?”

“Closest city,” Kravitz remained vague. “We tried to get home but our house was a ruin…”

“Many homes are,” she smiled sadly. “The town I mentioned is one of the few surviving the War…”

“War?!” Angus exclaimed, “Now there’s a war too?”

“Well, yeah?” Antonia sighed. “It started up...what? 12, 13 years ago? As soon as word of the Grand Relics started spreading every Lord, every Governor, every Mercenary Leader wanted to put their hands on them. Things have calmed down now, no power great enough to trigger huge battles, but every time a Relic is used another part of the land becomes uninhabitable.”

Kravitz frowned. “The Relic Wars…” he murmured. It almost sounded like they never got stopped, never forgotten.

The Bureau of Balance was gone.

Almost like the Seven Birds were gone.

They existed at one point, they had created the Relics after all, but they never collected or destroyed them.  _ Something _ had meddled with Istus’ realm and prevented them to, most likely. That didn’t explain why Kravitz and Angus seemed to recall an alternate chain of events.

Kravitz walked almost automatically through the forest, following Antonia’s lead, and almost didn’t notice when they reached a small cave protected by a rudimental fence shimmering with magic that shielded the camp inside from the forest’s attacks.

The noise announced it before Antonia opened a gate in the fence and let them see it: a small waterfall fell from the rocks next to the entrance, an almost unlimited source of water and natural shower.

“Use the waterfall to clean up, I’ll cook something warm,” she tossed her bow and sword aside and disappeared inside the cave, after restoring the spells on the fence.

Kravitz nodded, still deeply lost in thought until he felt Angus pull on the side of his jacket. “Mr. Kravitz, my back really hurts…” he admitted.

Kravitz shook himself out of his stupor, and kneeled down, lowering his voice as well. “Do you trust the lady or want me to check it out?”

Angus looked unsure, eyeing the cave. “You check it out, please.” He carefully began to unbutton his shirt, he let Kravitz help taking it off and turned around.

Kravitz stopped breathing. The kid’s back was awfully disfigured by a nasty looking cut, going all the way from his right shoulder to his left hip. It hadn’t cicatrized but it wasn’t bleeding either; instead it was dark, with black lines sprouting from its borders like poison spreading through the veins.

It was a really nasty sight to see.

One indicative of silverpoint poison.

“When did it start hurting?” Kravitz asked in a choked whisper.

Angus was silent for a long moment. “Since you found me, actually. I didn’t mention it because there was so much…”

Kravitz passed a cold finger on the edge of the cut. Angus’ skin was cold, even to Kravitz’s touch, and dry. “Let’s- let’s get you cleaned up,” Kravitz just said, taking off his jacket and rolling his shirt sleeves before pushing the kid gently towards the small waterfall.

Angus flinched when the first drops touched his bare skin.

“Does it hurt?” Kravitz asked, worried.

Angus shook his head. “Just cold.”

Kravitz nodded, putting a hand under the stream. It was extremely cold, it probably came out of the ground nearby. Looking around, he found some clean rags hanging from a nail in the stone and soaked them before using them to clean up Angus’ wound while the kid finished stripping and started washing up his clothes.

Angus squirmed a little while Kravitz did his meticulous work. It did sting, especially as the dirt that had seeped into the cut was washed out. But it was surprisingly bearable. “What’s wrong with it?” he asked finally to break the silence.

Kravitz sighed and hesitated to answer. “Angus, listen to me closely and don’t panic,” he started slowly.

Angus glared at him. “Good idea, sir. Why don’t I stop worrying about the fact that I might be fatally injured and in the middle of a deadly forest with a stranger and the grim reaper?”

Kravitz rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking. “It looks bad, Angus, it’s a fatal wound but...it doesn’t seem to affect you like it should.” He took a deep breath. “Angus, I didn't tell you early but when I found you...I did so because I had a bounty on you," he lowered his voice. "Kid, I think you're...not alive."

Angus was silent for a long time, immobile. When Kravitz extended an arm towards him again, though, he jerked away from his touch, stumbling towards the cave’s entrance.

“Angus…”

“You’re not going to take me away!” the kid was defensive and although he had no wand or crossbow  _ or even clothes _ on him, he looked like he was ready to fight Kravitz.

Kravitz stood up, but didn’t answer.

Angus’ determined expression faltered into panic for just a moment. “Sir, you’re not- Please don’t…”

“Shit,” Kravitz frowned, passing a hand on his face. “Angus, Ango, I promise I won’t harm you. I swear on everything I hold dear,” he said. “I’m just...confused.”

The admission seemed to calm Angus’ nerves considerably. “Thank you,” he sighed, relieved.

“That wound is  _ old, _ years old,” Kravitz continued, still nervous. He frowned and approached the kid again, slow enough to avoid alarming him. “Kiddo, how old are you again?”

“Twelve, sir…” Angus said quietly, suppressing a shiver.

Kravitz gently lifts Angus' chin. The boy was not only paler and thinner than the last time he saw him. He was definitely younger. "This makes as much sense as anything else,” he groaned, letting him go.

Angus shivered again and this time, Kravitz noticed. He recovered his suit jacket and put it around Angus’ shoulder. “Wear this while your clothes dry up, let’s get inside.”

Angus nodded. He was basically  _ drowning _ in the jacket but at least it was warmer.

As they entered the cave, they saw Antonia humming over a fireplace, some kind of stew boiling in a cauldron above the fire, filling the cave with a mouth-watering smell. “Did you get cleaned up?” She looked up at Angus. “It’s almost ready.”

Angus nodded and sat on a log on the far end of the cave.

Kravitz hesitated for a moment, but in the end decided to sit beside him.

“Sir,” Angus murmured, quiet enough that the elf couldn’t hear him. “I’m scared…” he wrapped the jacket tightly around himself.

“Yeah, I’m pretty freaked out too,” Kravitz admitted. When the kid didn’t answer, a funny thought made its way into his brain and made him smile. “If Taako was here he’d probably tell us we’re some kind of wimps.”

Finally, a small smile appeared on Angus’ lips. It was short lived, though. The kid just wanted to be at home, any home that might be, and sleep in a nice comfy bed without worrying about being undead and in a strange forest in a stranger world.

“You said you’re a detective?” Antonia called him from the fireplace.

“The world’s greatest,” Angus replied instinctively, looking up at her.

Antonia smiled, probably not taking him seriously. “Aren’t you a bit too young for that?” she wondered.

“I’m old enough. I’ve been helping the Militia since I was six,” he frowned. He didn’t need  _ another _ condescending adult even in this situation.

“That’s pretty great,” Antonia said, instead, taking him by surprise. “It’s a mean world out there, and people become mean as a reaction. It’s nice to find someone else who’s out there to help others even if…” she pursed her lips. “They’re a little weird.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with us!” Angus exclaimed. “The world got weird all of a sudden! I went to bed after soccer practice and I was fine...before waking up six feet under…”

“And I was about to prepare dinner to make my husband a surprise.”

Angus’ face scrunched in disgust. “Ew,” he said.

“I’m sorry?!” Kravitz jerked his head towards him, hurt.

“No offense, Sir, but last time you tried that we ended up ordering Fantasy KFC,” Angus deadpanned.

Kravitz turned his head away, huffing, chin on hand, elbow on knee.

Antonia chuckled. “Like I said, weird. You guys didn't drink any cactus juice, did you? I know I said this place hasn't been a desert in a long time, but we still get cacti... And drinking that stuff isn't good…”

"Cacti in a forest...now that's something out of Merle's thing alright..." Kravitz scoffed.

Angus looked at Kravitz. “Sir...?” He called him again. “Is there any chance this is all just a mean joke by Taako, Magnus, and Merle...?” Although improbably, he was still hoping that everything was some kind of prank and Taako would just pop out from behind a tree, calling them idiots for falling for it.

Kravitz scoffed, amused by the idea. “Believe me, if it is...I'll punch Taako so hard no glamour will fix his face.”

Antonia poured the stew in a couple of bowls and walked over to them. “Here, put something warm in your stomachs, you’ll sleep better.”

Kravitz lifted a hand and shook his head. “I’m good, thank you.”

Angus accepted the bowls and took in a deep breath of a  _ very familiar _ heartwarming spell. “What is…?”

“Wild boar and juniper berries, with thyme and coarse ground pepper,” she announced proudly. Angus and Kravitz looked up, both staring at her like she was going to grow another head, Antonia coughed embarrassed. “You ok?”

Angus’ body was shaken by a sob, almost at the same time as Kravitz standing up and staring at Antonia with deep disappointment and anger on his face. “Taako, if this is a prank it’s gone  _ too fucking  _ far!”

Devora blinked in confusion, stepping back as she saw Angus start to cry. “Uh- what- what did I…?”

“That’s one of Taako’s signature recipes!” Kravitz angrily pointed at the cauldron. “You even enunciated the name perfectly! Where did you learn the recipe if not from him?!”

“I…”  she paused for a moment, frowning. “...I don't...I don't remember…” she seemed to realize. “It just... it just popped into my head one day.”

Kravitz gritted his teeth, now definitely pissed off. “I don’t care what he offered you, or if you’re his fan, I swear it’s not worth what’s going to happen to you next if you don’t stop lying!” His flesh started to burn away, as he started shifting to his skeletal true form.

“I don't know who you're talking about. I swear!” Antonia shrieked, falling back next to the fireplace, looking up in shock.

Kravitz cast Detect Thoughts, immediately probing in her inner thoughts to see what was really going on. Her mind was a jumble of confusion and terror, littered with memories of the war, of raging battles she barely escaped from, of people who lost their homes that she earnestly helped find a safe place where to stay.

Kravitz interrupted the spell, withdrawing from her mind with a shocked, surprised expression on his - flesh again - face. “You’re telling the truth...”

“Of course I am!” Antonia stood up on shaky legs.

Kravitz dropped his face in his hands, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I-” he looked up apologetically. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Angus let out a choked sob, but forced himself to speak. “Not even they are so cruel to make a prank like this,” he said.

Kravitz sighed, looking at him. “I know, I just hoped…”

“I know,” Angus admitted, “me too.” He took a sip of the stew. It wasn’t  _ home _ but it tasted like it and at least it was  _ something. _ He’d figure out why this woman knew one of Taako’s recipes later.

Kravitz looked back at Antonia, that was still eyeing him suspiciously, but she still had grabbed another bowl and started to eat. “You’re taking this in stride,” he raised an eyebrow, impressed by her reaction.

“I mean…” Antonia shrugged. “When you live through the War, you see some shit. Towns turning into crystal statues, impossible monsters appearing out of nowhere, I’ve gotten used to weird stuff."

When she mentioned the crystal statues, Kravitz shuddered. He remembered the lab where he’d met Taako all too well. "I can imagine..." he said wearily.

"As I said before, though, shit has calmed down recently. Which is...good. Not as much activity from the Relics. But it's still a fucked up world out there."   
  
Kravitz nodded. “I want to know more about it tomorrow, but I need to rest and so does the kid,” he looked at Angus, who’d almost finished eating. “Do we need to take turns?”

“Nah,” Antonia shrugged. “The barrier holds pretty well, I wake up at dawnbreak to hunt anyway so you can sleep until breakfast.”

Angus finished his stew and let the bowl roll away. Kravitz sat beside him, his back against the cave’s wall. “Are you alright?”

Angus didn’t reply, but he did shuffle towards Kravitz, snuggling against him. Kravitz awkwardly lifted an arm to pass it around the kid’s shoulder, embracing him and allowing him to lay down more comfortably.

It was going to be a very cold night.


	3. Welcome to the Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Welcome to the Rock_   
>  _if you come from away_   
>  _You probably understand_   
>  _about a half of what we say_   
>  _They say no man's an island,_   
>  _but an island makes a man_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> **[TW: brief mention of self harm, alcohol addiction]**

Angus woke up the next morning as sunlight filtered through the leaves and into the cave. His head rested on Kravitz’s chest, he was still wrapped in one too-big suit jacket and Antonia was nowhere to be seen. He stirred, trying to shake off a vaguely uncomfortable feeling lodged in his throat and chest: it took him a while to figure out why but after a few seconds Angus’ eyes flew wide open as he realized.

He put a hand to his own chest and there was no rise and fall, he tried to listen closely to the noise of air rushing out of his lungs, only to be faced with dead silence.

He wasn’t breathing.

He closed his eyes and started counting: 30 seconds, 2 minutes,  _ 5 minutes _ and yet he felt no need to breathe in, no burning ache in his chest,  just that vague uncomfortable feeling as if someone had lodged a slab of stone in his chest. Trembling hands gripped around his throat, thumbs pressing on the trachea, effectively choking himself and  _ holy shit did it hurt, _ but it didn’t stop his breathing. Or lack thereof.

“What are you doing?”

The voice made Angus jump and yelp, letting go of his throat and looking up with his eyes wide open at Kravitz’s worried face. He took in a raspy breath and tried to speak, but only a weak hiss came out of his mouth.

“It’s ok,” Kravitz gave him a serious but concerned look. “Take a few deep breaths and it should get better…”

Angus followed his suggestion and after a while the uncomfortable feeling died away, leaving him with just a dry throat. “What the fuck was that?”

Kravitz sighed. “Breathing isn’t an involuntary reflex so it shuts down when you sleep, you’ll get used to it. Welcome to the club.”

Angus looked pretty upset when he glared up at Kravitz, but nodded. “Alright, how do we fix this?”

Kravitz blinked. “The fact that you’re undead? I’m...not sure, maybe a True Resurrection spell or a Wish...but I don’t think even Taako can cast those…”

“I meant the fact that there’s a  _ bounty _ on me, Sir…”

“Oh,” Kravitz stuttered, embarrassed. “Oh, that...as soon as I get you somewhere safe I can solve that promptly.” He’d have to see the Raven Queen, but that meant leaving Angus alone for who knows how long: he wasn’t going to until he was absolutely positive he was somewhere safe.

There was a whooshing sound and the barrier at the entrance dispelled, just moments before Antonia walked back into the cave, a couple of dead wild rabbits slung across her shoulders. “Hey, good morning you two! Have you slept well?” she grinned.

Kravitz nodded and, after making sure Angus was alright, stood up, dusting his clothes. “Yeah, can I help you with something?”

Antonia made a face, thinking about it for a moment, before tossing him the rabbits. “Skin these, I’ll smoke them for today’s lunch.”

Kravitz made a disgusted face at the bloody furry mess in his hands, already staining the white shirt he had on. “I...don’t know how.”

“What?” Antonia gave him an amused smirk. “Are- were you some kind of fancy boy? Well, you certainly look like it. Fair enough,” she took the rabbits back, “I’ll take care of these, take those waterskins there and fill them with water outside, will you?”

Kravitz nodded, too tired to argue, and did as instructed. Angus kept staring at him, silently, but it was obvious the kid’s mind was busy with theories and thoughts.

“What’s the town we’re going to called?” Kravitz spoke again, after watching Antonia prepare two bags for the trip.

“The commune of Littleroot...I wouldn’t call it a town…” Antonia said, a brief sad expression crossing her face. “There’s no more towns or cities like there used to, the War affected them all in a way or the other.”

“So, what is it exactly?” Kravitz frowned, eyeing Angus as the kid wore the clothes he’d washed and had dried during the night.

“You’ll see…”

“It’s three days by foot, can’t we just use a portal, sir?” Angus said, eyeing the two heavy backpacks with dread. Antonia paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Kravitz as well.

“I could if I knew where this town was…” Kravitz admitted, with a sigh. “And I can only teleport to places I’ve been before, or close to people I have a bounty on.”

“Oh,” Angus looked down, disappointed.

Antonia smiled, ruffling the kid’s hair. “Don’t worry, it’s a relatively safe path and I can carry you if you feel tired.”

Angus shuffled away, closer to Kravitz. “No, that’s dumb! I’m not a baby: I’m not gonna make a fuss about walking,” said the actual twelve-year old.

Despite everything, Kravitz found himself chuckling at that, until Antonia handed him one of the heavy packages. “You’re carrying this,” she said simply. “Let’s move.”

Kravitz and Antonia left the cave first, Angus trailed behind both of them: short legs meant he walked slower after all, and he didn’t want to trap Kravitz behind him.

-

Lucretia was tired.

She’d been angry at some point, burning with fiery determination to change the world, to save it, even if it meant to lose the support and love of her family.

But when Lup and Barry left,  _ she couldn’t. _ She saw the faces of the remaining members of her family and she couldn’t: she wasn’t strong enough to leave them,  _ to make them lose even more than they’d already lost _ in that empty victory, and instead she watched them descend into a spiral of sorrow and grief she wasn’t able to amend.

Two years after the start of the Relic Wars, one year after Barry and Lup disappeared, she left the Starblaster to live on the land below: she quickly recovered her Relic - it hadn’t been particularly sought, she built it to  _ protect _ not to fight, after all - and started working to improve the unfortunate lives of the people of that world.

But, when the library she built collapsed under the roots of giant trees, when the school and orphanage she oversaw froze into obsidian - the children now forever laughing in the silent halls - when the town she was forced to cast a barrier around slowly starved to death…

Lucretia gave up.

She wrapped her relic in fabric, to keep even herself from glancing at it - the thrall wouldn’t work as long as she  _ owned  _ it - and started traveling from settlement to commune, through ruins and graveyards and the remnants of a world she contributed to destroys. She brought some relief to the survivors, recorded the battles and the changes they brought to the land.

She was an anonymous face in a sea of thousands of refugees, who kept a stack of journal in an enchanted chest and a staff strapped on her back, but barely spoke to anyone.

They called her the Lonely Journal Keeper.

She thought it fit.

-

Johann didn’t have much of a home anymore since the escalation of the Relic Wars, but he soon discovered the fact didn’t matter much to him.

When his hometown was razed, he had packed up a small bag of necessities and, along with his violin, set off to find another place where he could compose and play in peace.

He settled for playing in the streets or among those gathered in shelters intended to protect them from the ones fighting and hunting the Grand Relics. And those people, whose lives were thoroughly destroyed by the War, found solace in his strings, and praised his talent and his name. It wasn’t ideal, but nothing about his life was ideal anymore: it simply was the best he could hope for.

He found out his name was already on the mouth of the people in towns he never visited before, that he was famous before he could realize and despite the tragedy all around, he  _ reveled _ in this.

They called him the Greatest Violinist in the World.

He thought it fit.

-

Antonia had been right: the road through the forest was mostly safe and they soon left behind the former city of Goldcliff behind to proceed down a road that went through a more normal wood.

Kravitz had never travelled by foot for so long and he was starting to feel tired, but he was quite sure that it was usual on these kind of roads to meet other people: merchants or even being ambushed by bandits. The didn’t meet another soul.

Hunting was easy, at least, for animals approached the road in numbers, so they didn’t starve at least.

Not that he - or Angus -  _ could _ actually starve, but they ate as long as there was enough food for Antonia as well.

“We’re here,” the elf woman smiled at a certain point, in the late afternoon of the third day. Kravitz was carrying an exhausted Angus on his shoulders, but the kid immediately perked up at these words, looking around in confusion.

There was no building or person to be seen.

Kravitz gave Antonia an unimpressed glare.

She laughed, “It’s ok, it’s ok, it’s not in plain sight but it’s here, follow me!” She walked towards a couple of crooked trees and pushed aside the branches to expose the entrance of a narrow canyon, almost a fracture in the ground.

“You know it looks like the perfect site for an ambush, right?” Angus blurted out before he could stop himself, but Antonia had already started descending and was already too far down to hear him.

“Let’s go,” Kravitz sighed, letting Angus down and taking his hand before starting to follow.

It was soon clear, when the branches closed back behind them, that there were  _ people _ here: wooden torches lit up the path, anchored at the walls getting higher and higher and blocking the sunlight.

“Hey, Toni!” an unfamiliar voice called all of a sudden, making them jump. Kravitz looked up to see a makeshift barricade and a couple of orc guards, sitting on rocks, one of them waving amicably as Antonia approached.

The elf woman grinned and ran to him for the last few feet. “Hey, Brad, how’s it doing?”

“Not bad,” he patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, I see you found another couple of displaced persons, welcome to Littleroot!” he raised his voice when he saw Kravitz and Angus approaching.

“We’ve got game with us, found along the road,” she pointed at her own bag. “Can we come in?”

“Sure,” he stepped aside. Right behind the barricade, where the canyon reached its lowest point before the road started going uphill again, there was a huge opening in the rock.

Antonia went through, gesturing the two to follow her and what they saw left them dumbfounded: the cavern was clearly a natural opening, but several buildings had been built in wood and carved in the stone and people of all races walked around, shopping, talking, doing their everyday tasks. There were even children playing around.

In this corner of the world, it almost seemed like the War hadn’t arrived.

“This is where we go our separate ways,” Antonia stopped at the entrance, extending an arm until Kravitz handed her the bag he’d been carrying. “I wish you good luck finding a way back home…”

With a small bow, she left them and quickly disappeared in the crowd.

Kravitz stayed still for minutes, before Angus started pulling on his shirt. “Sir, what do we do?”

“We have to start figuring out  _ where _ we are,” he answered after a moment, “how we hare here and how to go back.” He listed. “And we need to find  _ them,  _ too.”

Angus nodded, he had no doubt about what he meant by that. “I think I’d like to put my detective skills to good use here…” Despite the situation, investigating was tempting, especially in such a strange situation.

“Where are you starting from?”

“I think I’ll go to the inn, if you find a tavern or something like it, save me a cider.”

Kravitz snorted, taking aback. “Just don’t let Taako know I let you drink.”

Angus grinned. “If I saw Taako, my first priority would be to rat you out.”

Kravitz found himself laughing, getting a few weird looks from the locals, and kneeled down to ruffle the kid’s hair. Angus smiled before darting away, squeezing himself into the crowd and quickly disappearing from his sight.

“Well,” Kravitz said to no one but himself, straightening up and adjusting his clothes. “Let’s take a look around.”

-

Angus looked up at the sign reading  _ The Rock Inn, _ almost disappointed by how easy it was to locate the place: the cave was labyrinthic but vibrant with life and several people got interested - and nosy - when they saw a small boy in a fancy dress wandering around town, eventually giving him directions to the inn.

He pushed the door, the pungent smell of ale immediately reaching his nostrils and making him scrunch his nose. Looking around he realized quickly there weren’t many patrons: his best shot was the innkeeper anyway. He started walking to the counter but he stopped all of a sudden when his eyes lingered on a lonely patron, a woman with a slight build, wearing a hood over her face.

Angus hesitated.  _ It couldn’t be so easy. What kind of joke was Istus playing on him now? _ He approached slowly, almost as if moving faster would have made her fade away like an illusion. As he got closer, from his position he could finally see her face under the hood more clearly and his heart swelled with hope.

Although a couple decades younger than he knew her, the woman in front of him was unmistakably Madame Director. Absolutely overcome with delight he momentarily forgot about the situation and rushed to hug her, frail arms circling the woman’s neck as she cried in surprise and jerked her head back, tossing her hood back and uncovering thick white curls. 

“What-?! Who- who are you?!” she exclaimed as soon as she realized that the person who ‘attacked’ her was just a child. She looked around, concerned. “I’m sorry,” she tried to say as he pressed his face in her shoulder, “You’ve got the wrong-”

“MadameDirectorThankgoodnessKravitzandIappearedhereyesterdayandmetthisladybutithinkimundeadanditsallsoconfusingandpeoplekeeptalkingabouttherelicsanddontseemtoknowwhatthesongisand- and-” he rambled on until he saw the completely lost expression on the woman’s face. “You don’t-”

“I’m sorry, you’ve got the wrong person,” she smiled sadly, slowly trying to get free from an unwanted hug.

“N-no!” he explained, gripping her clothes. “Madame Director, you  _ have _ to know what’s going on! We’ve been looking for you...”   
  
"I'm not...a Director..." she smiled, but she was looking around in evident discomfort. "I said, you got me mistaken for someone else..."

“No, I don’t!!!” Angus cried. The innkeeper shot them a questioning look and the woman was about to call for help when the kid spoke again. “L- Lucretia, right?”   
  
She blinked, taken aback and her eyes slowly drifted back down.  "Uh- Ok, that's my name, but I...who are you?"   
  
“Angus! Angus McDonald! The World’s Greatest Detective? I worked for you…”

“Are you from the school…? No,” she shook her head. “What am I saying, everyone is…Look,” she cast a spell and with a loud  _ THUD _ a huge chest suddenly appeared on the ground beside her. Taken by surprise, Angus let her go and she crouched down to open the chest and retrieve a pile of journals before making it disappear again. "If you tell me when we met I might able to fish it out of my records..."   
  
“Wha- uhm-” Angus shook his head. He clearly was getting nowhere with this, it was best to try something else. “Taako, Magnus, Merle, have you seen them?! What about Mister Barry or Miss Lup or Captain Davenport!” If she didn’t know who they were perhaps she really was the wrong person... somehow. “We’re trying to find them!”   
  
Lucretia froze and drew a sharp breath. "What in the fucking plane of shit? How do you know these names?!" she lowered her voice, but it was high pitched in panic.   
  
“I- we-“ Angus just had to laugh in disbelief.  _ What the fuck?! _ “I’ve known them for years-” he paused, taking in that thought for a moment, “woah, yeah, years.” That felt weird to say. He shook his head. “I literally fell asleep at Magnus’ house yesterday after soccer but I woke up in a grave and I had to dig myself out and the Kravitz was there and were both just so confused and we both miss Taako so much Madam. Is any of this jogging your memory!? Please!” Angus looked desperate at this point. Lucretia had to at least acknowledge  _ that. _

If anything she looked even more scared and confused now. "Magnus'  _ house? _ You mean the ship? How- who the hell are you?" She narrowed her eyes and stared at him like she could stare into his soul.   
  
“I told you! I’m Angus McDonald and- and I’m the world’s greatest detective and you hired me onto the bureau of balance to help aid in the search for the Grand Relics and to assist Tres- Tres-“ Angus sighed.  _ Why’d they have to choose that name?! _ “Tres Horny Boys in their retrieval! I helped in the final battle against the hunger alongside Barry and Lup and— and you cast a big barrier around it! Is any of this familiar?!”   
  
Lucretia listened in silence, looking borderline sick. “I think-” she finally spoke, with trembling voice, “I need a drink.” She raised a finger shushing Angus before he could start rambling again. “And  _ then _ we can figure out what  _ I think _ it’s going on…”

-

Mere moments after Angus left, Kravitz realized two things:  _ one, _ they didn’t decide how, when or where they were going to meet again, and  _ two,  _ someone was playing on the violin a very familiar melody in the corner of the street.

The noise came from amidst a thick crowd, gathered together, so Kravitz couldn’t see with his eyes who was playing, but as he approached and could hear the song more clearly he realized why that song was so familiar.

On the Day of Story and Song, the impossible journey Lucretia recorded wasn’t the only thing that got broadcasted: a large number of songs and plays, composed by the bard Johann to keep the Voidfish fed, had also been printed in everyone’s mind. So, someone  _ playing _ them meant the broadcast happened,  _ unless… _

The song slowly ended and the crowd clapped with enthusiasm before dispersing and revealing the scrawny shape of an half-elf, currently busy putting away his violin in a bag filled with stacks of sheet music. While the town citizens walked away, Kravitz stood still, studying the man: he looked…  _ almost _ familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember if they’d met before or not.

The bard seemed to notice Kravitz was looking at him, because he lifted his head to stare back. “Uh...I’m finished for today…”

Kravitz shook his head, chasing away the stupor. “That was impressive,” he just said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know…” the bard said with a small smirk. “Thank you.”

“So, uh-” he had to get at least a name out him. “Are you from around here? I’m- we’re still trying to get the lay of the land, as they say…”

The bard finished packing and turned back to Kravitz. “I’m not,” he crossed his arms. “I’ve been travelling around since the Relic Wars got bad.”

Kravitz nodded. “About that...do you think you could tell me more about it? Or point me towards an historian...someone who can? When did this war...continue? No, that doesn’t make sense...What happened eleven years ago?”

When the War  _ should’ve  _ stopped, when Lucretia should’ve made everyone forget.

Johann considered the question for a minute, looking the stranger up and down. “Eleven years ago? Nothing really comes to mind except that the Wars got really bad around that period.”

Kravitz nodded, crossing his arms. “And yet they should've stopped at that point...I guess whatever's going on, the Voidfish was never used...but this doesn't change the fact that us being here makes no sense. Is it a Mind Flayer? An illusion? A parallel universe? It doesn't feel like a planar shift, yet..." his words were half lost in a mumble at this point.

Johann stared at the man with a raised eyebrow, intrigued more than confused. “I don’t know what a Voidfish is, man, but I can tell you I’m not an illusion. Are you okay? Did you hit your head? I know a pretty good cleric if you need one.” He spoke with concern, leading Kravitz to a nearby bench.

Kravitz sighed and sat down on the bench beside Johann. "It's just...three days ago I was preparing a date and there hadn't been wars for 10 years and then all of a sudden I was in the middle of nowhere and the world was a mess and my husband's magic kid is a-" he stopped. It might have not been wise to tell someone about Angus. "What am I supposed to think?"

Johann shrugged, taking out his violin again to pluck the strings absentmindedly. “You’re not the first one to come to me with weird theories…”

Kravitz perked up. “I’m not?”  _ Were there other people like them, somewhere? _

“If you’re religious, you can ask your deity. If you are not crazy, then figure out how to make that world, because it sounds far better than this one.”

_ To make. _ That took Kravitz off guard. Maybe the answer wasn’t to  _ go back,  _ but to  _ change _ the world they were in? He sighed,  _ that was impossible,  _ they were 10 years late to fix it anyway. “I might just ask her…” Kravitz wondered. “But I dread to face her until I figure out what's going on with the kid, it's a vicious cycle…”

“The kid?” Johann wondered, looking around. “I don’t see a kid with you.”

“Yeah, we split up, he’s probably gonna be at an inn, or something…”

-

Lucretia had come back from the counter with a glass and  _ a whole bottle _ of a golden liquor Angus assumed was something homemade because there was no label on it, just a sticker saying  _ flammable. _

“Are you sure you want to drink that?” the kid wondered when Lucretia sat back down.

She glared at him. “They know me, here,” she said, simply, and poured herself the first shot.

Angus nodded slowly. That didn’t answer anything, but whatever, he was anxious to start getting answers out of her.

“Do...do you want anything?” she asked hesitantly: he was still staring at her as she was about to drink.

“Cider?” he shrugged.

Lucretia set down the glass and arched an eyebrow at him, before shrugging and heading back to the counter. “Sure, just don’t tell your...whatever’s taking care of you- you have a caretaker, right?”

“Ta-” he stopped himself. “I guess Kravitz...he’s not really taking care of me, I can take care of myself. And he’s ok with it.”

She nodded and went back to the innkeeper, exchanging a few words and gold coins before heading back with a glass of cider and a straw for Angus. “Alright,” she stared him down before handing him the drink. “Tell me everything you know about  _ us, _ from the beginning…”

She finally sat down, as Angus took a sip of the alcohol - it was the only alcoholic drink he liked, except from the daiquiris Taako made sometimes - and started to talk. “If I do that, do you promise to tell me how your story differs?”

Lucretia nodded, opening the first journal she started to write when they first landed on that plane.

“Well...okay.” Angus took a deep breath. “You guys are a team selected by the IPRE to explore other planes on a ship called the Starblaster. All seven you, Taako, Magnus, Merle, Barry, Davenport, you and Lup- and, uhm, for one hundred years...you went to different worlds and ran away from a huge black obsidian goo- thing called The Hunger. It would chase you around, looking for the Light of Creation, and destroy everything in its path.”

Lucretia nodded slowly and, without looking at Angus, downed the whole content of her glass. “Sounds about right. Proceed,” she told him as she poured herself another glass.

“So...you got to this world and...you had to figure out how to stop The Hunger-”

“More or less-”

“So you divided up The Light of Creation in seven parts and made relics of unparalleled power-”

Lucretia’s eyes widened for a moment, and she looked around quickly before gesturing Angus to lower his voice.

Angus nodded, understanding that  _ probably  _ she didn't want to be known as one of the people who created the Grand Relics. They should have had this talk somewhere more private. Lucretia downed another glass.

“To get the plan to work they had to be put out into the world and be sought after. But.. there was a war. For them. An awful one.” He continued, his voice now just loud enough that Lucretia could hear him but other passerbys couldn’t. “So Miss Lup left to go find her relic, but she never came back-”

Lucretia nodded slowly, her face dimly contorted in grief.

“Barry and Taako tried to find her-”

“Wait, what?” she shook her head, staring at Angus like his head opened up to reveal a kitten piloting hid body.

“Barry and Taako tried to find…” he repeated, awkwardly looking at her.

“Barry left with Lup,” Lucretia said, taking a sip of her - again - full glass. “They left and Taako tried to look for them but gave up quickly enough. He said they abandoned him...they abandoned us.”

“No! They didn’t! Lup was trapped- but you didn’t know that, you thought she was dead!” He rebuked, not realizing he’d raised his voice again. “So you took matters into your own hands and fed copies of your journals to Fisher.”

Lucretia was about to say something - probably about Angus being too loud again - but she froze, her mouth agape in shock. “I did what?”

“You let everyone keep what was necessary: their names, their lives before the IPRE...except Davenport, the Institute and the mission  _ was _ his life...he could barely say his name after you did what you did.” Angus frowned, Davenport had to have avoided that fate in this world but at what cost?

“That…that was the plan…” Lucretia murmured, her voice barely a whisper. Her face was red with the fumes of alcohol now, and her eyes glistened with tears. “That was the idea, but  _ I couldn’t- _ I couldn’t do that to them, not after everything they already lost…” the expression on her face was completely pained now and she quickly started to sob.

Angus looked around in panic: he didn’t expect her to start crying like this on him.  _ She was supposed to be the adult in this situation, not him. _ He managed to grab a tissue from a nearby table and handed it to her. “There-”

Lucretia grabbed the tissue and loudly blew her nose, before sniffing and looking back at Angus. “I’m sorry-” she drank again, “What happened after?”

“Oh, you-” he frowned, trying to recall things that weren’t in the broadcast but he got to learn later directly from her. “You assembled a small group of people to hunt for the Relics, and you recovered yours pretty easily but when you had to recover Barry’s Bell in a place called Wonderland...you failed, and you lost 20 years of your life.”

Lucretia tried to drink again but her glass was empty, to she took a swig directly from the bottle.

“You created an organization devoted to the retrieval of the relics: you inoculated everyone who joined with Fisher’s ichor so that they could learn about the Relics, but kept the century on the run a secret with Fisher’s baby.”

“They had a  _ baby?!” _ Lucretia exclaimed out loud before recomposing herself.

Angus suppressed a chuckle. “Yeah, but even still, you made no progress. Until Killian brought Magnus, Taako, and Merle in with the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. After it destroyed the town of Phandalin.”

“An organizashun…” she said; her speech had started to sound a little slurred. “Oh! That’s why you call me Directurr…”

“Yeah,” Angus glared at her, she wasn’t getting  _ drunk _ on him, now, was she? “On the Moon...well, a fake, second moon.”

“On the Moon!” she exclaimed and started giggling. “Seems so unnecessarily complicated…”

“You inoculated them - Taako, Magnus and Merle - with only the  _ knowledge  _ of the relics. And sent them on missions to recover the rest. Finally you were making progress-” he tried to take the conversation back on track. “Davenport, you kept close by your side. Basically he was a servant. Barry killed himself before the Voidfish could affect him and was wandering as a lich...you had no idea where he was. When he appeared in front of Tres Horny Boys, you demonized an organization called ‘The Red Robes’. You said they were rogue wizards hellbent on destruction-”

“...hed dat befor…” she mumbled.

“So.. you sent them on missions. They got the Oculus on a train with me. I helped them get it. They wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for me.” Angus said proudly. Even if that wasn’t strictly the case, there was no harm in a little bragging. “Then they went for the Gaia Sash in Goldcliff. That one was a doozy... Then- oh!! On Candlenights they got the Philosophers Stone! That one was so cool! I cried! And we were up until like four in the morning.” Angus continued, trying to sound excited to get her interest in the tale, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Just, just.....whyy?” she groaned, her head on the table and one hand gripping the almost empty bottle. “Why would I make things so complicated? If I knew how to…” she stopped to hiccupped, “trap John why didn't I just say so? I guess I'm stupid like that..."

Angus sighed with a grimace, she was impossible to work with in this state. He just sipped more cider from his own glass.

“So, that’s your story…” Lucretia mused, between the fits of chuckles. “Niiice one, but you still don’t tell me...you a seer or smotime? Oh! Maby a victin of the Oculus for loong time- would a Relic know the story? I suppose it’s the Light…”

“I...went to bed at Magnus' house after soccer practice and I woke up in a grave..” he explained, quite sure he’d said that before.

“That...sucks!” Lucretia’s eyes were almost closed now.

“No! You can’t go to sleep! Especially not sitting at a bar...We have to get Kravitz-” Angus tried to shake her when he realized she was unresponsive. The only result he got was to have her fall with her weight all over him.

-

Kravitz was enjoying the bard’s company but he realized quite soon that he had to find Angus before they could start a vicious circle of losing sight of each other.

“I’ll go look for the kid, uh- Perhaps…” Kravitz looked at the bard like he was thinking of something. “You can keep an eye on him, later, while I do some… _ consulting _ with my Goddess?”

Johann grimaced. “I’m not a babysitter...I don’t see why you can’t bring a kid in a temple…”

“Because it’s not technically a-” Kravitz groaned. “Look, I’m sorry, forget it-”

“I’ll do it,” he interrupted him, surprisingly. “I’ll do it, just don’t take too long.” He started strumming on his fiddle again.

Kravitz stared at him, once again surprised by the helpfulness of a stranger. “I didn’t ask for your name.”

“It’s Johann,” he smiled, holding out a hand.

Kravitz was about to shake his hand when he suddenly stopped and blinked slowly. “Johann,” he repeated. “That Johann, the-” He stopped, he couldn’t make a fool of himself more than he already had. “In the world...I come from, your name is famous all over the planar system…” he said in awe, finally shaking his hand.

Johann looked at him in amusement. “It seems like there are a lot of things different in this world from yours. How did I become famous?”   
  
“You died,” Kravitz blurted out before he could stop himself.   
  
Johann’s face fell and he dropped his hand. “...oh...”   
  
Kravitz shuffled uncomfortably. That was probably not the best thing to say. Well, he was at least going to play it cool: he let his eyes flash red and let his skeletal form show for a fraction of a second before turning around and leave.

_ Nailed it. _


	4. Phoning Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _And we’re standing there,_  
>  ready with all that food.  
> But that’s not what they wanted.  
> They wanted phones

After a few moment of suffering where Angus did his best to keep Lucretia from straight up sprawling on the floor like a dirty rug, he felt a couple of strong hands lifting her lean body up and saw the innkeeper, an amused smile on his face, laying her down on a nearby bench.

“Here she goes again,” he huffed, looking at her with hands on his hips. “Hope she hasn’t been bothering you too much.”

It took the boy a moment to realize the innkeeper was talking to him. “No, sir, I was- Wait, does this happen often?” He’d never seen Lucretia lose herself into alcohol and would have never thought it was a character trait of hers at all, but the innkeeper’s reaction told him otherwise.

“Often enough,” the man shrugged. “I don’t mind, she pays good coin.” With that, he went back to his post to keep serving customers.

Angus had just sat down, beside Lucretia, and had started pondering what to do when the inn’s door creaked open and he saw Kravitz’s head peek inside and squint as he looked around. “Sir! Sir, I’m here!” he called, waving his arms.

Kravitz’s eyes landed on him and Angus saw him immediately relaxing. “I was afraid it was going to be more complicated to find you,” he said, approaching him with a bemused smile. “I’ve found a friend who can keep an eye on you, while I take a _short_ trip to the Astral Plane…”

From the way he just said ‘short’, Angus reasonably assumed said trip could take a while. “Sir, I’ve also found someone,” he said instead, nodding at Lucretia’s prone form.

Kravitz frowned for a moment, struggling to recognize the woman for a few seconds. “Is that…?”

“Madame Director, Lucretia,” Angus nodded.

“Did you find her like this?” Kravitz glared at the almost empty bottle of liquor.

Angus shook his head. “I told her everything, but...she doesn’t remember. She said things were different.”

Kravitz nodded severely: deep down he still hoped Taako and the others would be in the same situation as them, but this finally destroyed that little hope he had left. _It was just the two of them now._ “I think...I have an idea on how to fix this,” he said slowly. “But I need to ask the Raven Queen, first. I need you to stay with- or maybe it’s better if I call him in?”

“Who? I’m not staying with a stranger…”

“It’s not a-” Kravitz smiled. “I’ve met Johann… _the_ Johann, the bard who played the Song.”

Angus mouth was wide open. “But he’s- he’s…”

“Not in this… _reality_ at least, he’s alive and well and…” he smiled awkwardly. “A little spooked, maybe, but that one’s on me.”

Angus gave him an unimpressed look. “What did you do?”

Kravitz shrugged. “Have you asked her if she knows anything about the location of the Relics?”

Angus shook his head. “Why?”

“Ok, let’s-” he put a hand on his mouth to think and walked in, exchanging a few words with the innkeeper before nodding at Angus and starting to lift up Lucretia, although she incoherently complained. A journal fell on the floor as Kravitz dragged her outside and Angus grabbed it promptly, opening it to a random page.

_Day 47 - The constructions should be finished in a couple of weeks, meanwhile I’ve started helping the kids play in a safe environment with magic. I’ve seen a few locals giving my robe weird looks but I really can’t bring myself to give it up for less appariscent clothes._

“Angus, are you coming?” Kravitz wondered, as he was on the door, with Lucretia’s limp body slung across his shoulders.

The kid closed the journal and followed suit, back outside...well, outside the building. It was still weird to find a whole city encased in rock like this.

Kravitz walked up to an area with a few trees - sunlight filtering in from a small opening in the rock - and let Lucretia down. Johann was standing a few feet away, plucking nervously the strings of his fiddle.

“Hi,” Johann waved awkwardly at Angus, “you’re the skeleton kid I ga- your dad is a skel- I mean,” he coughed. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you.”

Angus sighed. “He’s the grim reaper and he’s dating my dad,” he rolled his eyes. _Just what did Kravitz do?!_ It took him a moment to realize what he’d just said because Kravitz was giving him a weirdly amused look. He’d never talked about Taako as ‘dad’ and it spooked him how naturally that came out. “Anyway,” he quickly changed topic, “it’s nice to see you, Mr. Johann! I’m Angus McDonald, World’s Greatest Detective.”

Johann relaxed a little and shook his hand before a loud splash of water and a scream made them both jerk their head towards Kravitz. Who apparently thought throwing a bucket of cold water on Lucretia’s head was the best way to wake her up.

The woman looked around in temporary panic before groaning. “What a weird dream…” her eyes landed on Angus. “Oh.”

The kid had to catch himself from bursting into laughter, though small giggles still escaped him.

Lucretia sighed. “I supposed that wasn’t- why am I soaking wet?”

“It pains me to ask you,” Kravitz pinched the bridge of his nose, “because my husband would be pissed at me if he knew I did, and also because you’re a drunkard apparently, but stay around here and keep an eye on the kid?”

Johann raised his hand. “You just asked _me_ to keep an eye on him too…”

“Yeah,” Angus crossed his arms. “How many people do you think need to _babysit_ me?”

“Uh, at least seven?” Kravitz asked.

Silence fell, as Angus squinted, trying to figure out if that was Kravitz’s lame attempt at a joke or he was sadly serious.

“Look, keep an eye both of-” he started, looking at Lucretia fight with apparently one hell of a headache. “Keep an eye on each other, alright? And _stay_ here: we still have things to discuss.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Angus grinned. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

Kravitz rolled his eyes but was smiling when he opened a portal to the Astral Plane.

“Just promise you’ll come back, ok?” Angus’ voice stopped him one last time as he was crossing through. “I can’t lose the only person who makes sense right now.”

“I promise I won’t be long,” Kravitz smiled gently before the portal closed and he disappeared completely from view.

Lucretia stared at the spot in the air where the portal had been. “Am I still dreaming…?” she murmured.

“No?” Angus sat on the ground, roughly between her and Johann, wondering how strict Kravitz’s _‘stay here’_ was going to be. He still had to properly explore the town, after all, and these two _chucklefucks_ surely weren’t able to take care of him properly. “That’s stupid.”

“What?” Lucretia frowned.

“The idea that everything you can’t explain is just a dream, it’s _stupid._ ”

“Well, aren’t you a cheeky little shit?” Johann snorted.

Angus looked at him with a little amused grin. He just met him but had a feeling this version of Johann was more interesting than his boring and depressed counterpart. “So, what do you do in this world?” he turned towards him.

“What did I do in yours? Before dying and becoming kind of a superstar, I mean?”

“Oh, good, you already know about that part.” Angus shrugged. “You were the caretaker of the Voidfish! You wrote compositions and fed it to it. But you were always so sad because you were the best violinist in the world and no one would ever know you!”

Johann smiled at the impromptu praise. “Well, this world may be fucked up but at least I can share my music with whoever I want.”

“What the _fuck_ is a Voidfish and also how many people have you told about this story of yours?” Lucretia groaned.

“This _story of mine_ is the truth! How do you still not get it?” he snapped.

She shook her head. “I don’t think...look,” she took a deep breath, closing her eyes, “you apparently believe wholeheartedly your story to be real, but we can’t really rule out the chance you’ve been fooled by a relic...likely the Oculus, or maybe the...Chalice…” she paused. “Wait, that’s a good point, actually,” she started mumbling, a hand on her mouth, “the chalice can manipulate time and fix mistakes, maybe you used it and don’t remember it? I wonder what could’ve been-”

“No! You’re wrong! I never used the Chalice and neither did Kravitz! The Relics were already gone when we appeared here!” He crossed his arms. “I bet Taako would understand, I want to talk to him…”

Lucretia stopped mumbling and slowly a bitter chuckle escaped her lips. “Taako won’t...he won’t talk to me anymore, I don’t know what you think he’d say to you anyway. You have to at least consider the chance this is a different timeline.”

“No! You’re not listening! Taako would listen to me, no matter the circumstances. And with Kravitz by my side he’d never say no! We’re his _family!”_ Angus shouted, and regretted those words immediately because if anything, Lucretia’s expression hardened.

“You keep saying his name, but I don’t think you _know_ Taako or what he’s been through,” she said coldly. “And he wouldn’t just _say_ something like that even if it was true.”

“Well,” Angus hesitated for a moment. “He didn’t exactly say it out of the blue, there was a lot of ‘don’t tell anybody or I’ll cast magic missile with a tenth level spell slot on you’ afterwards.”

Lucretia blinked, dumbfounded, as the hostility slowly disappeared from her face, replaced by a thin smile. “Well, that sounds more like him.”

“Sounds like an amusing fellow,” Johann scoffed.

“I know my story is hard to believe,” Angus sighed. “I just thought _you_ would remember, like me and Kravitz do. I thought I wouldn’t be alone...”

“Is there a particular reason you can think of that caused you and him only to remember?”

“No...I mean, Kravitz is an aspect of the Raven Queen so there’s that, but _me…_ I’m nobody, I’m just-”

“The World’s Greatest Detective,” Johann supplied. “You just introduced yourself as that to me, didn’t you?”

Angus stared at him.

“Maybe I’m just bullshitting it, but maybe whoever sent you here thought there was a mystery only you can solve?”

“I don’t like to think there’s a higher will behind this,” Lucretia said quietly.

“Why?”

“Because it would be a _cruel_ will,” she said, and the other two lowered their eyes, “to rip a child from his home and toss him in _this_ world.”

“Well... if it was a higher power I’m sure they’d be omniscient enough to know I could handle it,” Angus snorted, “probably,” he added under his breath. He looked uncomfortable, as if he wasn’t quite sure if he believed what he was saying.

A woman walked by them, heading to the nearby well to fetch some water, and glared at them disapprovingly.

“Maybe we should move,” Lucretia proposed as soon as the woman was gone.

Johann shook his head. “Skeleman told us to _stay here_ and, honestly, I’m not going against the Grim Reaper’s wishes…”

“But he might be gone for hours!” Angus groaned.

-

Return to the Astral Plane was surprisingly _normal_ . Everything was as Kravitz left it, even the book he was half-reading, but there was no piano playing in the chambers of the Eternal Stockade, as Barry was the one who’d suggested they’d play for soothing the trapped souls, there was no burn marks next to the cells where Lup used to _intimidate_ those who tried to escape.

He was truly alone once again.

Without a moment of hesitation, he delved deep in the castle dungeons and into the temple dedicated to the Raven Queen. Using five feathers from his own cloak, he created the summoning circle and started praying.

The light dimmed as the shadows cast on the walls started moving and congealing into a vaguely humanoid shape sitting on the stone throne. “ **You’ve been absent, Kravitz,** ” the Raven Queen spoke. She hadn’t made any sound but the meaning of her words was projected in Kravitz’s mind nonetheless.

“Things have been...hectic, my Queen,” he started, swallowing in nervousness. This was a first, he’d never been _nervous_ in front of her, but he deeply feared she would reject his story.

“ **I know,** ” she said instead, taking him by surprise. “ **You’re part of me and I’m part of you, Kravitz. I could feel a stitch falling out of place in the fabric of reality, even before The Lady Istus contacted me.** ”

“Istus?” Kravitz looked up. The goddess of Fate, of course, if someone had a clue about what was happening it had to be her.

“ **She said she has a mission for you and that child,** ” the Raven Queen continued. “ **I agreed as long as you still devote yourself to me and your duty.** ”

“I’m- of course!” Kravitz exclaimed, somewhat offended. “I’m not going to- wait, Lady Istus is _responsible_ for what’s happening?” He realized.

The shadows moved again and the goddess’ projection dissipated, leaving that question unanswered. Alone once again in the silent chapel, Kravitz turned heel and headed back outside.

There was something else he had to check before going back.

-

Against Kravitz’s best wishes, Lucretia and Angus had gone back to the tavern, where the woman was trying her best not to order another bottle of ale. Johann had followed suit, playing a melody next to the entrance to keep an eye on the area outside in case Kravitz came back.

“So what does...Kravitz do exactly, what’s his job?” Lucretia asked, in an attempt to learn something more about the weird duo and also in an attemp to make conversation.

“He kills necromancers, hunts those who come back to life, the independent undead. Oh, but Mr. Barry is fine!” he quickly reassured when he saw her worried expression. “In fact, he and Miss Lup started working as Reapers too!”

A small glimmer of hope appeared and vanished as quickly in her eyes. “Oh, you mean in your world…”

Angus nodded. “He was going to have to reap them becaure they’re liches, but they worked something out with the Raven Queen so they work for her now.”

“Is it possible…” Lucretia said slowly. “That’s what happened in this world too? That that’s why we lost track of them after they went after the Animus Bell?”

“Maybe,” he grimaced, “but the Animus Bell..that’s a rough one. They’re probably- oh, maybe they’re in Miss Lup’s umbrella!”

“The Umbrastaff?” Lucretia perked up.

“That’s what happened before they became reapers: Miss Lup was trapped in her umbrella because  she went after the Gauntlet and died. And years later, Taako picked it up from her skeleton. In the battle against the Hunger, I tried to cast a spell with it and this _huge_ fireball came out, so he broke it over his knee and she popped out!”

He was getting excited, speaking loudly and more quickly at the point that Lucretia had to gesture him to keep his voice down.

Angus pouted and crossed his arms. “When is Kravitz coming back?” he said, looking at Johann by the door. “I feel like it’s been forever.”

“It’s just been a couple of hours,” she smiled, “be patient.”

“It doesn’t feel right to stay here doing...nothing!”

“Maybe there’s something we can do…” Lucretia said, hesitantly. Angus looked up and noticed for maybe the first time that she was fidgeting with something shiny in her hands. “I haven’t since- I’ve never said goodbye, so...”

“What?”

“It’s awkward to...I haven’t talked to Taako for _years_ now, and he’s probably pissed at me…but he’s the more likely person to figure out what’s going on with you.”

Angus gaped, excitement bubbling in his throat. “Wait, are you calling Taako _now_ ? You could have just _called_ him this whole time?”

“This _whole time_ is a couple of hours! Besides, things are... _shaky_ between us.”

“At least that’s a constant.”

Before Lucretia could ask him what he meant, the stone started humming, a faint light pulsating slowly as the call went through unanswered for a good minute before stopping. “Oh…” Lucretia sighed. “Maybe they’re busy…”

“Try again!” Angus egged her on. “It’s weird. Taako is very busy but he always picks up. Merle’s the one who’s hard to reach.”

“I don’t think Merle even really learned how a Stone Of Farspeech works,” she smiled. “Let’s try again.”

A sudden high pitched buzz interrupted the background music they’d almost tuned out and they raised their heads towards Johann, who had stepped aside when Kravitz had walked through the door into the inn. “There you are!” he called, when his eyes landed on the two of them.

“Finally!” Angus grinned and ran to him, looking up hopefully. “Any news?”

Kravitz hesitated. “I...still don’t have a definitive answer, your bounty is cleared though, so no need to worry about that anymore!” He said quickly. Taako would have seen trough that lie in an instant, he just hoped the kid would not. “Meanwhile, we can look for the others…”

“About that…” Lucretia started, frowning. “I’m trying to contact Taako and Magnus on the Starblaster but no one is picking up.”

Hearing Taako’s name, Kravitz immediately straightened up. “I tried too, earlier, he wouldn’t answer.”

“Yeah, he probably buried his Stone in some cabinet, I’m calling the ship’s communication system. I thought Magnus would at least answer that one, but…”

“She says Taako might figure out things better about our situation. I’m glad I don’t have a bounty on me anymore, but…” he paused, as his eyes landed on Lucretia again. It looked like gears were turning in his head. “You don’t think…”

“What?”

“If this is a parallel...a different timeline...is it possible the rest of the IPRE still has their bounties? What if some of them are in the Stockade? Did you check?” he asked in quick succession and growing panic.

Kravitz’s eyes widened slowly as color drained from his face in fear. “Fuck…” he said, covering his mouth with one hand.

“Is it possible?”

“Not just possible, it’s entirely plausible. I have no idea what...well, _I_ have been up to in this universe, “ uncaring of the fact they were in a tavern full of people, Kravitz made his Book appear and started browsing through the pages looking for a group of familiar names, eyes frantically darting left and right. After a few stressful minutes, he finally sighed with relief. “They’re here,” he showed Angus a few lines of very fine print with the names of the members of the IPRE. Some of them, Lucretia’s, Davenport’s and Merle’s were darker than the rest. “They’re all still on this plane.”

“That’s a relief. Why are some greyed out, though?”

Kravitz frowned. “It means I can’t reach them. They’re somewhere...protected, shielded from the Raven’s Queen influence. Most of the names in this book are like that, that’s why my job is so hard.”

“What about Captain Davenport and Merle, then?” Angus wondered. “Can you just...teleport us where they are?”

“I guess that’s the case,” Kravitz sagged his shoulder. He should’ve thought about this from the very beginning but he had had a lot on his mind.

“Great! Let’s-” Angus jumped on his feet just a moment before Lucretia’s stone lit up as it successfully connected with the ship.

Lucretia beamed. “Ta-”

“Fuck. Off.”

It was definitely Taako’s voice, but it came through harsh and cold before hanging up the call without saying anything else.

The three of them stared silently, in partly relieved and yet left with a bitter taste in their mouths.

Angus looked up at Kravitz, lost and confused, and Kravitz had no idea how to say.

-

Taako dropped the stone into a drawer as it started ringing again and slammed it closed.

Sure, _now_ they wanted to talk.

Fuck that noise.

He went back to the study, where Fisher and Junior’s tank was. He put the finishing touches on a recipe before casting Mage Hand and dropping it inside the water.

“There ya go, you two,” he muttered as their tendrils wrapped around the paper. And, for a moment, he’d forgotten the recipe he’d just been looking at.

The two jellyfish suddenly glowed, and the memory of the recipe returned, and Taako knew it had just been broadcasted to the rest of the surface as well. He sat down with his back to the tank, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them before hiding his face in his knees, ignoring the faint ringing he could still hear from the stone.

Fuck them all for abandoning him…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 1 to 3 have been beta-read and checked. This chapter isn't yet but we were impatient.


	5. Lead Us Out Of The Night - part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Lead us somewhere to safety_  
>  We barely know where we are. But we know it’s not there

Deep down, during the whole length of the hellish century of running, Davenport had a clawing suspect in his heart that the IPRE had secretly meant for their mission to _fail_ from the very beginning.

He’d been surprised when they told him, _he_ would be the one to pilot the Starblaster and lead the selected team outside of the Prime Material Plane. He had talent, he knew he had, and yet it had never been publicly recognized before, so he let the hubis blind him for a brief moment and he asked no questions.

But then they assigned him the team and the seed of suspect was planted.

Taako and Lup, twin geniuses, graduated top of their classes but...prideful, hard to work with, troublemakers, pranksters. Sildar “Barry” Hallwinter, a dozen publications, also a genius, but incapable of public speaking or even relating to anything outside of his laboratory. Putting the three of them together was begging for a disaster to happen.

Merle was...Merle.

Lucretia was there as a chronicler so he couldn’t really complain, but she felt out of place from day one and Davenport couldn’t just ignore that.

And Magnus, strong clever and an amazing team player, but the whole deal of assigning the mission a _teenager_ as their security guard was a mockery in plain sight.

And yet Davenport endured the stares, giggles at his back when he walked through the Institute’s halls. He endured with the determination of a man who wanted to _show_ them.

Show that even such a ragged team could make it.

Everything like that lost meaning when their world, the Institute and all the slanderers in there were swallowed by the Hunger. Their mission wasn’t a matter of pride anymore, rather a matter of life and death.

And yet, the mission failed, at least that’s what Davenport felt. Sure, they had stopped the hunger, but at what cost? The world was plunged into chaos as everyone hunted down their relics and fought mercilessly for control of them, however temporary that control might be.

Then there was his team. The people who had become family to them. Davenport saw how broken they had become. He watched as they left; he watched the hurt in Taako’s eyes grow when Lup and Barry never returned, when Lucretia left the same way, when Merle stopped _dancing._

There was nothing he could do to help though. He had failed his mission and failed to protect his crew, so he collected his own things and left. There was nothing more he could do, and with nothing to do with the Starblaster he may as well see if he could help somewhere else, or at the very least he could get away from the constant reminder of his life’s failures. Maybe if he wasn’t constantly being reminded of what their mission had surmounted to, he could think of a way to fix things.

Davenport moved from one place to the next, following the suffering brought on by the relics, in a feeble attempt to bring back a purpose to his life.

-

Johann elected to stay in Littleroot: he wasn’t suited for adventure, but he agreed to wait in the underground town until their return.

After Lucretia and Angus, Kravitz walked last through the portal, as it would inevitably close after him, and so he was unable to realize what kind of place he just teleported them to until it was too late. He pushed Angus behind him, in an attempt to not let him see the horrible landscape they just teleported to.

“There’s nothing here…” Lucretia noted, in evident shock. “There’s no one.”

It was a battlefield, or at least it had been until recently: there was no soul alive in their field of view, and yet the ground was still smoking, most corpses hadn’t started rotting yet. Most buildings were warped and destroyed, the few structures remaining  gave the impression the town had once been a port.

“No,” Kravitz frowned, keeping his guard up. “I can sense it, we’re surrounded.”

Before the other two could make a comment, though, a loud roar took them by surprise as a giant shadow emerged from the ground on a nearby hill. It was a _boar_ the size of a small dragon, but its frame was thicker and the small feathered wings on its back didn’t look able to lift it in any case.

The impossible beast stumbles down the hill, running at full speed towards the group. Lucretia and Kravitz both were immediately in a defensive position and when it got close enough, they got into action in surprising synchrony. Lucretia cast an opaque barrier, sturdier than any wall, around herself and Angus, that stopped the beast on its tracks and stunned it. Kravitz circled the boar and sliced its side, opening a large gash with his scythe.

Almost as if they were waiting from a signal, a group of unlikely soldiers, of all races and classes, sprung out of their hiding places and started tossing spells, arrow and all kinds of improvised weapons at the monster, climbing its fur and stabbing its eyes, burning its feathers and freezing its hooves in place, until it finally let out a last cry of pain and fell prone and still on the ground.

There was a long moment silence, before a chorus of joyous exclamations and cheers erupted from the crowd. Discombobulated by the sudden noise and action, Kravitz, Angus and Lucretia could do little more than stare, dumbfounded, at the scene of these people celebrating over the carcass of an impossible monster, when a familiar voice caught their attention.

“It’s certainly been a while, Lucretia. Although, this isn’t how I expected our reunion to be.”

Lucretia couldn’t help but smile as she turned around to face Davenport.

Angus hesitated for a moment. He remembered Davenport both as the neatly dressed smiling ward of Madame Director and as the stern but brave Captain of the Starblaster. The man in front of him was neither: instead of short, well kept, orange hair and mustache, this Davenport had longer hair, dirty, braided and twisted, and a bushy beard. One of his ears was injured, almost if it was bitten off and two relatively new scars run under his right eye, to the side of his nose. Like the rest of the soldiers, he also was wearing dirty rags, impossible to say if that was his only choice of clothing or they were dressed in such way to mask their scent from the beast.

“That was impressive,” he continued, nodding at Kravitz before turning again towards Lucretia. “I don’t know how you appeared right in the middle of our ambush but thanks to you we had no losses. That was the last beast created by the last owner of the Oculus…” he sighed, “maybe now these people will finally have a chance to rebuild.

“The last owner of the Oculus…” Lucretia repeated, lowering her voice, “does this mean that you-”

“I don’t have it,” he cut her short. “I gave up trying to win possession of my relic a long time ago, I’m just trying to clean up the aftermath of the battles. My solo attempts almost cost me my life,” he pointed at his own injured ear with a wry smile. “Maybe I could get it if I had more people on my side, but there was no chance.”

“We can help…” Angus nodded. “No, we _must_ help, we must recover all relics to defeat the Hunger.”

Davenport was taken aback. “Lucretia, who’s-”

“These are Angus and Kravitz,” she quickly introduced them and smiled. “Captain, we have a plan to defeat the Hunger and stop the Wars at the same time.”

Davenport was silent for a long time, during which the rest of the soldiers had started to butcher and cut the monstrous boar’s meat.

“Captain-” Lucretia tried to get him to reply, but he raised a hand to shut her up.

“Not here.” He looked around briefly, before gesturing the three of them to follow. “Come with me.”

-

One of the few buildings still standing amidst the destruction was a large barn that was now being used as a makeshift hospital by the survivors. Despite the sorry state of most of them, the air was vibrant with joy from the recent victory, people were smiling and children running through the aisles.

“I wonder if these people will be able to rebuild a safe commune like Littleroot,” Lucretia noted with a smile, once they’d sat down in a corner of the building, away from indiscrete ears.

“This _was_ a commune,” Davenport sighed. “These people fled here to the Nelanther because they thought the sea would keep them safe, but the Oculus was smuggled on by a pirate ship a couple of months ago and it’s been hell ever since.” He looked around some more, then turned his attention back on the three of them. “But you said you have a plan. I thought you had given up, what changed?”

Lucretia gave him a wry smile. “They changed,” she pointed at Angus and Kravitz. “They come from a world where the Relic Wars never happened-”

“No, no, no!” Angus interrupted her. “They happened but you stopped them with the voidfish!”

“What’s a void-” Daveport raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve been wondering that too,” Lucretia sighed. “I think he means Fisher.”

Davenport nodded, stroking his beard. “I guess that _could_ work but it wouldn’t be a permanent solution. People would forget about the Relics, stop fighting after them, but after a while they would be found, given different names and misused in a vicious circle-”

“Yes, but,” Angus interrupted him again, he was starting to grow impatient, “that’s only part one, we need to put the Light back together and face the Hunger.”

“We’ve tried a hundred times, kid, how can we-”

“My plan,” Lucretia said. “The barrier around the world, it...wouldn’t have worked. Barry was right, it’s going to cut all bonds and destroy this world…”

“So, what...”

“Then, _what about_ I cast it on the Hunger’s plane instead?”

Angus huffed, crossing his arms. “Don’t say it like it’s _your_ idea, now! It was Taako’s to begin with.”

“You’ve been in contact with Taako?” Davenport’s face lit up. “I haven’t been able to contact the ship since-”

“Well, no,” Angus’ shoulders slumped. “Our Taako, in our world, came up with that.”

Davenport stared. “Right. You mentioned that before, what’s-”

“We think...that’s the leading theory, at least,” Kravitz tried to explain, “that we’re from an alternate timeline. Where things are...different.”

“Better!” Angus corrected him. “Things are better!”

Davenport shot Lucretia a worried glance, but she just gave him a little smile and a shrug. “I mean, they know things they shouldn’t, and the plan they offered doesn’t sound bad at all, why shouldn’t we go along with it?”

“Alright, alright,” Davenport sighed, straightening up, “I have no idea where the Oculus currently is, though.”

Angus nodded, the gears in his head spinning. “We’re on a island, right?” Davenport nodded. “And the Relic was last used here not long ago, which means the current owner has to have picked it up here.”

“Yeah, but there’s still a lot of people, here,” he looked around, “we can’t inspect all of them.”

“It would be nice to have one of Merle’s Zone of Truths right now,” Lucretia sighed.

Angus shook his head. “Well, if I managed to put my hands on that...I’d try to leave. Has there been any ship leaving the island recently?”

Davenport lit up, like struck by a realization. “There hasn’t, but-” he rubbed his beard, “ohh, it’s risky.”

“What?” Lucretia asked, dreading the answer.

“Me and my team, the ones you saw earlier, now that the beasts are dead, we found a ferry a few days ago,” he smirked, “one of my man mentioned he was trying to get it to sail to lead people to safer shores.”

Angus jumped up. “The owner of the relic will definitely try to get on it!”

Davenport nodded enthusiastically. “It won’t pinpoint him but it’ll definitely narrow the list of suspects, besides the boat can’t carry more than a few dozens of people.”

“When is this boat leaving?” Kravitz leaned forward.

“I don’t know,” Davenport admitted, “he mentioned it a few days ago. Let’s just hope he hasn’t left yet…”

-

The port was destroyed, most ships ripped to shreds and unable to sail, but among them a large flat boat was especially visible because of the huge crowd  of people who had boarded it in hope to get away from the Nelanther.

Among them stood a tall elven man, clutching his wand ang bag like his life depended on it. The more people that got on the ferry, the more he wondered how easy it would be to kill them all. He glanced at the shore and straightened his shimmering bow tie. _He would be fine. He could handle this._ A voice whispered in his head.

He could make anything real, now.

The world was at his fingertips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but we really wanted to introduce this new arc before starting in on the action. Thanks for all your comments, we are really excited there's people out there enjoying this experimental work!
> 
> -
> 
> **This is a piece of the roleplay that didn't make it to the fic version but it was hilarious enough that we couldn't NOT share it.**
> 
>  
> 
> "So," Kravitz cleared his throat. "If you know something, anything about the location of the relics it'll help."  
> Lucretia stared at him for a long time. "You're kidding, right?" She pointed at the long object strapped behind her back.  
> Angus gasped. “Is that the bulwark staff?!”  
> “I mean it could just be a giant uh... you know but I’m assuming that’s what you mean.”  
> Lucretia slapped a hand on the kid's mouth. "Hush!"  
> Angus broke away from Lucretia. “What!?” He narrowed his eyes. “Is it... is it really the staff or is it. Uh..”  
> "A what?" She frowned, then cast Sending to speak directly in the boy's head. 'It's my relic, I reclaimed it some months ago. As long as it's close to me it won't project a thrall.'(modificato)  
> “Yes? And?” Angus looked at Lucretia strangely. And then looked at Kravitz. Then back to Lucretia. “Don’t make me say it in front of my dad.”


	6. Lead Us Out Of The Night - part 2

There was good news and bad news awaiting the group at the docks. Good news was that the ferry was still there, bad news was that it was about to set sail and it was absolutely  _ packed _ with people.

“There’s too many people! They’ll never let us on!” Lucretia exclaimed as soon as she saw the ship.

“Oh, no,” Kravitz commented flatly, a small smirk appearing on his face. “If only two of us were small enough to fit in between other passengers.”

“It’s gonna be tough to investigate in those conditions, but it’s a chance,” Davenport nodded, speeding up towards the docks and waving his arms to get the captain’s attention.

Along the way, Angus had picked up a pretty pathetic stick to serve himself as a makeshift wand. He held it close to his chest. “I can score pity points too!” he exclaimed. “Quick! Sir! Punch me in the face so I look all beaten up!”

Kravitz opened his mouth, speechless, and gaped for a few seconds before exclaiming “No  _ fucking _ way! What’s in your goddamn head?!”

Angus crossed his arms. “You know Taako would do it, if he was here.”

“No, he fucking  _ wouldn’t _ !” Kravitz snapped. “What makes you think-”

“He  _ threw me off a train _ once!”

Davenport rolled his eyes. Surely those two were at each other’s necks.

Kravitz barked a dry laugh. “Would have you rather died on said moving train?” He paused, as if suddenly realizing he was arguing with a child. “Besides, you know he wasn't...at his best back then.”

That seemed to end the conversation, because Angus sighed and nodded.

“I was gonna jump! He just pushed me! And he also told Lucretia to slap me when I was-” he paused, frowning. “Wait no that was Magnus. Wasn’t it?”

Lucretia gave them a weird look. "Slap you?"

“I was crying.” Angus said simply.

"That sounds...unnecessarily mean," Davenport raised an eyebrow. "Even for them."

“Well, as I said,” Kravitz sighed, “they weren’t in a nice place. Anyway, the ship is leaving, and the pity points idea isn’t bad…”

Lucretia glared at him.

“Illusions,” he clarified, quickly, kneeling in front of Angus to study his face. After a moment, he snapped his fingers to give him a fake black eye and broken nose with an illusion spell, then gestured him to come in his arms.

Angus smiled, suddenly feeling a little anxious but also excited. “I’m gonna crack this mystery just like I did with the Oculus the first time!” He said, throwing his arms around Kravitz. “And you can tell all about it to Taako when we go back home! He’s gonna be so proud!”

Kravitz’s smile faltered for a moment, but he didn’t say answer to that. "Let's go." He said, instead, lifting the lithe kid in his arms and heading towards the boat, followed by Davenport. "Please, wait!" He called, once they were close enough. "My son is injured, please can you let him on? I'll follow on the next ship!" He turned to face Davenport. "Captain, can you keep an eye on him?" He said in a lower voice as the people shuffled to let Angus on board.

“Just be quick,” the boat’s captain shouted from the upper deck.

Davenport and Angus managed to be successfully on the ship when the ropes were untied and the magitech engine sputtered to propel the ship forward. Kravitz looked at the ship getting farther and farther away, with a heavy heart: it didn’t feel  _ right _ to leave the kid alone on this, but it was their best chance to move forward.

"They'll be fine," Lucretia said softly, seeing the concern on his face. "Captain Davenport will keep an eye on him."

"I wonder if it was a good idea, to send the two of them against a Grand Relic..."

Lucretia frowned. "I trust them." Her voice poignant with resolve. “Don’t you?”

-

Angus had immediately wanted to start investigating. Instead, he was pressed like a canned fish between a woman with a crying baby and a fat dwarf. The ship was  _ packed _ with refugees of all kinds, most were peasants but there was also a group of neatly dressed people, standing on an elevated platform almost as if they were afraid of mingling with the common folk.

“This might have been a lost cause,” Davenport sighed, looking around. He had a hand on Angus’ shoulder to avoid losing sight of him in the crowd.

The kid shook his head, even more determined. “No, no, we’ll find the Oculus here, I can feel it!”

Davenport gave the child a little incredulous smile. “That optimism of yours is something really exceptional. How are you so confident we can succeed in this?”   
  
“Because you’re the best Captain in all of the planar systems!” Angus grinned. “And I’m the World-  _ this _ World’s Greatest Detective! If there’s a team that can retrieve the Oculus and save the world is us!”

Davenport sighed, looking out at the water. “I don’t really think I’m the best captain-” he started to say, but his eyes widened when he saw a large figure approaching Angus from behind.

“If I were you,” a strong hand slammed on Angus’ head, with strength but not enough to actually  _ hurt _ the kid, “I’d be more careful talking about a Grand Relic.”

Davenport had immediately extracted a wand and was pointing it at the figure, but Angus turned around and, after a brief moment of surprise,  _ smiled _ like a baby on his birthday. “It’s ok, sir!” He exclaimed, completely calm. “She’s alright!”

“Do you know her?” Davenport lowered his want, a bit perplexed.

“Her name is Jess the Beheader,” Angus grinned, turning around to face the dwarf woman. “And she’s one of the best wrestlers I know.”

-

As a child, Jessica Brawnanvil had dreamed of leaving the mines and become a wrestler when she came of age. She worked hard, showed her clan she was an independent and reliable woman, and left with a clan of adventurers, determined to kick ass and take a badass name.

Jess the Beheader sounded radical.

Unfortunately for her dreams and career, she’d barely enrolled to the Arena in Goldcliff when the Relic Wars started ravaging the land: Goldcliff was engulfed by plants and disappeared, the arena buried under vines and leaves.

Jess returned to the mines of her clan, only to find them completely empty of life. Her family and friends were still there, turned into solid crystal statues by a fool wielding a Relic.

It had been ten years since then, she lived as a mercenary now, her youthful dreams long forgotten. Until that very moment, at least, when the boy called her by a name he  _ shouldn’t _ have been able to know.

“How,” she said slowly, lifting her hand from the boy’s head, “can you possibly know that name?”

“Aren’t you?” Angus frowned. “I’m sure you are! I went to plenty of your matches! Jeff Angel is still my favourite but you come close second!”

Davenport and Jess looked at each other then at Angus in total confusion.

“Wrestlers aren’t allowed to bring weapons, you see?” Angus continued rambling. “But she’s got this axe, you know, and it’s special, it’s-” as Angus started explaining, Jess joined him, saying the last word at the same time as he did. “Soulbound.” Angus grinned at her. “So when she won, she’d climb the corner of the ring, summon her axe and shout-”

“Heads will roll…” Jess murmured, incredulous.

“And she would  _ slam  _ down and behead her opponent! Of course, it was all illusions and staged because, you know,  _ wrestling, _ but it was  _ so cool, _ and-” he stopped, realizing he caught too many people’s attention.

Jess was in silent awe. “Who...are you?” she laughed nervously. “How do you know these things?”

Angus looked at her,  _ really _ looked. “You’ve...never been a wrestler, have you?”

“Briefly, before the war...you wouldn’t have been born yet,” she sighed. “But everything you said...the name, the catchphrase...that was just  _ plans _ in my head, how do you know about them?”

“Different universe,” he just blurted out, honestly.

Jess stared, for a long minute, then just sighed and smiled. “I guess it just makes as sense as anything else,” she admitted. “Am I famous there? Did I  _ smash _ the wrestling scene?” she grinned.

Angus finally broke his serious stance, grinning a bit. “Yeah!”

“Nice!” she nodded, but immediately returned serious. “But this doesn’t change that you should be more careful talking about a Grand Relic in public,” she added, lowering her voice.

Angus nodded, but his eyes lit up. “Will you help us? I’ll tell you about your alternate universe career later. For now, what you need to know is - and do not freak out - that the new owner of the Oculus is here on this boat,” he said, his voice barely a whisper now.

Jess was surprisingly unfazed by this revelation. “Yeah, I know,” she admitted, after a beat. “I am here because of that. I’m planning to throw that  _ thing _ and the bastard who took it under the water, so that no one will manage to get their hands on it anymore.”

“Please, wait,” Davenport stepped in. “We have a plan to dispose of it  _ for good, _ but we need to find and neutralize it with as few casualties as possible.” He looked at her straight in her eyes. “You should know by now, after twelve years of this, that anyone enthralled by the Relics is consumed only by the want for chaos. Not to mention, it would make it so much easier for them to kill everyone on this boat with how packed it is. And if we freak out, he’ll know he’s being pursued, and people with relics often have an itchy trigger finger. This can’t turn into a bloodbath. And it won’t if you can please just help.”

“You helped us apprehend him in the last universe. I have confidence you can do the same in this one, Jess!” Angus realized, then frowned. “Wait, that is...too much of a coincidence. Could it be the owner of the Oculus is…” he started mumbling. “Miss Jess, have you seen a man with a bright multicolor bowtie board the ship?”

Jess blinked. “Well, yes, I have!” she exclaimed, looking around. “It really stood out, I thought he was some kind of noble,” she pointed at the small group of fancy people, “but wasn’t dressed like one, you know? Apart from the FLAIR bowtie…”

“FLAIR?” Davenport wondered.

“Fabulous Lustrous Apparel Indicating Richness,” Angus explained at the same time Jess said “Very expensive fabric.”

Angus laughed, but his amusement didn’t last long. This was  _ too much  _ of a coincidence, for Jenkins to be the one to find the Oculus,, and Jess and him being on the same...vehicle to stop him. Angus seriously hoped there was no flaming crab this time. “We should split up and look for Jenkins while we’re-”

“Jenkins?”

Jess made a face. “I didn’t say a name, I just said he was wearing that bowtie...”

“It’s Jenkins!” Angus crossed his arms and leaned backwards. “Jenkins wanted to Oculus in our timeline too! But I helped Tres Horny Boys catch him. He was sort of terrible even if he was a very good criminal to last for so long without being caught by me!”

“I’m sorry, Tres Horny who?!” Davenport chuckled.

“Taako, Magnus and Merle, that’s how they called themselves.”

Davenport let out an exasperated sigh. “Of course they do.”

“Alright, we look for this Jenkins and then what?” Jess crossed her arms. “It’s not like we can ask him ‘please excuse me sir can I have the Grand Relic for a moment?’ so I expect you two have a plan.”

“Yes,” Angus said.

Of course, he didn’t have a plan.

“Let’s locate him first, then try to move to surround him,” he blurted out. “Then- uh- let’s use illusions to make it seem his coat’s on fire so people will step away from him!” He read something like that in a book once, it might just work.

Jess nodded. “Alright, might I say, though, we are three short people pressed like canned sardines on this boat?”

Angus looked at Jess.

Jess looked at Angus.

Angus looked at Jess’  _ shoulders. _

“Oh, hell no!” she exclaimed. A minute later, she was holding the kid’s feet on her shoulders, balancing him so he could survey the whole crowd. “See anything?”

“Still no!” he said, squinting to try and see better.

In an effort to grab the ropes above his head to get in an even higher point, he suddenly felt himself slip and fall towards the cold waters below, if a strong pair of arms hadn’t caught him suddenly.

“Fuck!” he heard Davenport shout, pushing people out of the way to check up on him. “Are you alright, ki-” The gnome had suddenly stopped, looking up at the person who’d just  _ saved _ Angus, with an expression of shock.

“I apologize,” the stranger said. He had a deep and mellifluous voice, with a weird accent, like Kravitz’s  _ bad _ work accent, but smoother and more natural. “Are you alright, boy?”

Angus turned around and his mind blanked for a moment when his eyes settle on the flamboyant piece of garment at the man’s neck. He’d been standing right behind him and that’s why he didn’t see him, but this man…

This man wasn’t Jenkins. He was a complete stranger. A fairly young half-elf, dressed like a scion of nobility who didn’t want to take off his expensive clothes even when they got dirty and ragged.

“I’m fine,” Angus said, his voice barely a whimper as he shook himself from the surprise  _ just enough _ to reply. “Who are you?”

"Me? Oh that's not really important, I'm just a humble traveller and you may call me Lee." He bowed and tipped his hat a little.

“Full name. Please.” Angus snapped.

The man burst out laughing. "Feisty kid, uh? Leeman Kessler, much obliged," he did a little bow.

Davenport glared briefly at Angus. Angus, himself, was too confused to process what was going on. He’d found the man with the bowtie, the alleged owner of the Oculus, but...it wasn’t Jenkins. In fact, his name sounded familiar in a way Angus couldn’t quite place, but he had no idea who this man was, what his class was or what was his modus operandi.

He had no idea at all.

“Are you alright, boy?” Leeman asked again. The worst thing is that he actually seemed like a nice person. It would have been easier to fight him if he wasn’t.

Angus swallowed and nodded.

“Then why are you looking at me like I’m gonna eat you alive?”

Davenport stepped forward and Angus silently thanked him. “Look, let’s cut to the chase. You have something we want-”

“Wait!” Angus shouted. He gave the hint the owner of the Oculus was the man with the bowtie because he expected it to be Jenkins, but he actually had no solid proof that this Leeman was the one they were looking for. It was a disgraceful blunder for a detective. “I’m sorry, I thought you would be-” he bit his lip, looking for the right words to say. “We’re looking for  _ something. _ A magical object. We know it’s here on board. I thought you would have it because...the  _ last time _ someone with that bowtie took it.”

A brief expression of surprise appeared on Leeman’s face, like he’d just realized something. “Is that so?” he frowned, looking around. “Actually, this one,” he pointed at his own bowtie, “was traded to me in exchange for a certain ring, just before boarding.”

“And the person who traded it? Who was that?” Angus asked frantically.

“I didn’t ask for his name, he seemed to be in a hurry,” Leeman rubbed his chin, thoughtful. “But he was an elf, fairly tall…”

“Did his voice sounded like he was talking about slow sex?”

Davenport snorted. Leeman didn’t have as much self control and burst out laughing. “Well, that wasn’t the description I would’ve used, but now that you mention it, it was exactly like that!”

Angus looked very pleased with himself, but Davenport wasn’t. If anything, this last piece of information only made him worry even more. “You exchanged a ring for a bowtie?”

“Well,” Leeman straightened his bowtie, “FLAIR is quite expensive an I  _ am _ a trader of sort, you see? I collect and sell magic items.”

“Do you now?” Davenport raised an eyebrow, his eyes moving slowly to inspecting the man’s figure. “What a coincidence, since we’re also looking for a  _ magic item _ of sort.”

“Cap...that’s not-” Angus tried to catch him attention. They had no time to lose, they had to look for  _ Jenkins. _

“Let me guess,” Leeman smiled, “a Grand Relic?”

Angus shut his mouth, looking up with his eyes wide.

“This is a small boat, and it’s not hard to overhear conversations. I, unfortunately, never managed to put my hands on something  _ so exquisitely rare _ as one of those...but if you say this Jenkins fellow has one, well, I might just give you a hand retrieving it.”

“Damn,” Angus winced, “I really should stop discussing plans at the last minute.”

“And in a crowd,” Davenport added, before turning his attention to the elven man once again. “Why would you help us?”

“Why, out of the goodness of my heart!” Leeman said, a hand on his chest. Only when he was met with both Davenport’s and Angus’ totally not convinced stares, he actually answered. “Whatever your purpose is with the Grand Relic, I want the chance to see it with my own eyes. I’m a collector, after all...”

“Right.” Davenport’s voice was permeated with sarcasm. “Then-”

“Can I search your bag, sir?” Angus cut him off. At this point, Jenkins was a probably, but a good detective never ruled anything out. “If you’ve heard what we’re talking about you must know that we’re on high alert and any random person to come up to us wanting to join the conversation must be treated with incredible caution.” Angus put on his Big Detective Voice he used with perps.

It was very cute.

“Uh...bag? What bag?” Leeman opened his arms, he wasn’t in fact carrying any bag or luggage with him. “You can inspect my pockets if you want, but I’m as broke as...as...now, what’s a good metaphor?” He rubbed his chin, thinking.

“Please, anything you have!” Angus insisted.

Leeman shrugged and kneeled down, to allow the kid to search his pockets more comfortably.

Angus figured he should just turn all of his pockets inside out. Leeman chuckled and Davenport rolled his eyes, as he did his best to continue looking around in his own.

“Oh?” Angus gasped as he suddenly found something weird. Leeman’s left breast pocket felt really weird and deeper than it looked. “What the hell…?” He frowned and rifled around in it a little more before realizing he couldn’t pull his hand out.

Leeman smiled, his expression not really threateningly but definitely not sorry. “Sorry, boy. It’s only for a little while.”

Angus felt a whooshing sound and then everything around him went dark as he disappeared in Leeman’s bag of holding, almost as if sucked in by a black hole.

From Davenport’s point of view, he heard a noise, turned around, and Leeman was alone, standing up and straightening his jacket, brushing dirt from his knees.

“Where is the kid?” he demanded coldly, the beginning of a spell already starting to tingle on his fingertips.

“Woah, there…” Leeman’s hands shot up, defensive. “He’s gonna be fine, at least for the next 10 minutes, I needed a collateral!”

Davenport glared at him.

“Now,” Leeman grinned. “Where’s the fucking relic?”


	7. Lead Us Out Of The Night - part 3

Angus landed face first on what felt like a pile of garbage. Around him, it was completely pitch black, and the air smelled stale and sick. The first thing he did, upon managing to sit up, was to grab his little stick and cast Light to take a proper look around.

He was indeed sitting on a pile of garbage. Or rather, a pile of objects both plain and weird: scrolls, wands, broken kitchen appliances, bags and bags of gold and jewels, poker chips and wood carvings. Angus got on his feet and looked around more: the space he was in was surprisingly spacious, the darkness didn’t help evaluating the size of the pocket he was in. With a variant of the Light spell he learned from Merle, he shot a ball of light from his wand, that flew in the air in a straight direction until it stopped when it stuck to a surface.

Uh. It was closer than he thought, further than he hoped. With a few more well-placed lights he was finally able to see the whole space around him: it looked like a cavern but when he reached the walls they felt like fabric to the touch.

He was in a Bag of Holding. Or rather, a Pocket of Holding, if memory served him right. He got caught in Leeman’s trap. Angus gritted his teeth: he’d  _ tried  _ to be careful, but he hadn’t been careful enough. Davenport was probably being threatened out there and he couldn’t just sit down and wait to be rescued of pulled out.

He needed to  _ act. _

-

Davenport took a step back and pulled his wand out. “Let the kid go,” he ordered.

The people around them had taken a step back, seeing this confrontation take place, there were already murmurs about the Grand Relic circulating. This was the nightmare scenario.

"Of course, of course, my good fellow. But one thing at a time, you don't want to be casting spells on a crowded boat, do you?” Leeman gestured at the crowd surrounding and observing them. “You tell me where the Relic is and I'll free the boy. Oh but, you'd better be quick, there's about 10 minutes of air in there..."

Davenport looked at the man’s pocket. A bag of holding sewn into his coat, clever but not  _ too _ clever, he just needed to rip it open to get Angus out. With a quick movement he cast Mislead to make it seem like he put the wand away. “I don’t know where the Relic is yet, we told you all we know already,” he admitted, moving the illusion to distract Leeman and dropping just at the last second to cast a bigger spell on the whole crowd around them.

Jumping on a crate at Leeman’s back and murmuring the complex incantation, Davenport cast Hypnotic Pattern on the whole boat. A fountain of fireworks and colorful lights enveloped the crowd, tinting their eyes in wonder and bliss.

Of course, there was a chance someone would make a successful saving throw but…

“I’m impressed,” Leeman blinked, looking around, mildly impressed. “I wouldn’t have pinged you as someone who could cast such powerful spells…”

“Ah, fuck.” Davenport was only able to say. He looked around and there were a good number of charmed people: he could just order them to tackle Leeman, but he wouldn’t be able to guarantee for their wellbeing.

“Let’s see how you respond to more...blunt force, shall we?” Leeman grinned and plunged his hand in the bag of holding. “Ow! What?!” After a moment he pulled out a tiny crossbow...completely covered in  _ bees. _

“What?”

“What the hell is the boy doing in there?”

Davenport smirked. The kid had energy to spend, not giving up even when trapped. He couldn’t give up either.

-

Angus hadn’t done anything especially heroic. While exploring the Bag and the piles of  _ garbage _ it contained, he realized the groups of items were amassed with a  _ logic _ to them. There was a pile of weapons, daggers, crossbows, some whips, a pile of golden items, including a decent number of coins, a pile of clothes and armor, and a pile of seemingly random objects that immediately caught Angus’ attention.

It was a collection of wands, staves, orbs, all kind of arcane foci, both broken and unusable and brimming with power. This guy wasn’t a collector.  _ He was a hoarder. _ And he’d just made the worst mistake of his life trapping Angus in here.

Shivering with anticipation, the kid started digging into the pile, examining and tossing several foci before behind his shoulders before setting his eyes on a  _ strikingly familiar _ book cover that had absolutely no place being there. Angus lifted the battered copy of one of the  _ Caleb Cleveland _ books. The mystery of what such a book was in the foci pile was short lived: as soon as the kid flipped through the pages, his fingertips started to tingle. Some kind of madman had turned a copy of this book into a magic focus, or maybe it was printed on magic paper?

Angus didn’t know, didn’t care how it ended up there.  _ He could cast magic through it,  _ and that was the important thing. Breaking a Bag of Holding should release all of its contents outside, so he closed his eyes and tried to cast Magic Missile towards the leathery walls.

Two bolts of light hit the walls, leaving scorch marks and a distinct burning smell in the air, but didn’t manage to perforate the wall. The third lost power midway and fell down, hitting in the middle of another pile of trash.

At first nothing happened, then a loud buzzing filled the air.

“Oh, no,” Angus said as a  _ cloud _ of bees started spreading in the large space and towards him. He covered his face in an attempt to be stung as little as possible, but the insects were all around him.

He started running away from the point the swarm had started from, stumbling as he couldn’t see where he was going anymore.  _ There was so much junk in there. _ He didn’t know what would be useful and what wouldn’t be. He had to think on his feet! The only thing he knew for sure was that he had to break it from the inside and-  _ damnit! _ These fucking bees!    
  
Angus needed to try something. He raised his newly acquired magic book and cast fireball in a futile attempt. The fire cut through the bees but only made them angries. To make things worse, it set  _ something  _ on fire with a powerful blast that knocked him on the ground. He stumbled back on his feet and started running again, the fire gaining on him.

_ He could only hope the fire would burn the walls before it could burn him. _

-

“Seven minutes.”

Davenport kept watching Leeman, ready to catch any sign of change or something he could use to his advantage, or maybe a sign from the kid.

Something unexpected happened a few seconds before the spell broke.  _ Smoke _ started rising from Leeman’s front pocket, accompanied by the distinct smell of something  _ burning. _ Leeman took a few moments to realize the smell and smoke were coming from him but as soon as he did, he let out some colorful expletives and started trying to take the jacket off.

“Now! Tackle him!” Davenport shouted, and the two dozens of charmed people around them launched themselves against Leeman’s frame, grabbing his arms and legs and preventing him from moving.

“What-?! Let me go, you idiots! We’re all going to burn alive if you-”

Davenport walked slowly up to him and climbed on a crate to get at eye level with him. “Game over,” he simply said, grabbing the edge of the Pocket of Holding with both hands and just like that he started to pull the fabric apart.

As the smallest rip formed, it was like a bomb went off. Everyone was tossed backwards, some people fell into the water and the entire boat rocked under the  _ giant pile of flaming trash  _ that appeared on top of it.

“Angus!” Davenport called, shielding his eyes from the smoke. He could hear the boy coughing but couldn’t see him amidst the chaos. Leeman had been buried under the pile and from the lack of shout and movement, Davenport guessed he wouldn’t have to worry about the greedy collector anymore.

“I’m here,” came Angus’ reply, together with a bright light from amidst the smoke.

Davenport cast Gust of Wind and blew away the smoke towards the sea, revealing Angus, a little smoked but alright, stumbling towards him. “Are you alright? What did you do?”

“It was an accident,” Angus said in a raspy voice, “where’s Leeman?”

“He’s a goner, probably,” Davenport eyed the pile that buried him “Serves a hoarder right.”

Angus nodded and dove into explaining. “I stepped on a jar of bees and, and then I cast a fire spell to try and get rid of them and, and it didn’t really...work...” he winced. He was lively, but his face and hands were covered in stings and burns.   
  
Davenport looked him over in concern. “Are you going to be okay?”   
  
“I’ve suffered worse!” Angus gave him a smile.   
  
Davenport gave him an unimpressed look and would’ve asked more questions if Jess didn’t run her way to them, shouting. “What the  _ fuck _ just happened?!” She was almost histerical. “I’m pretty sure I was under a spell and where does all this trash come from?!”

As they looked around, all three of them were quickly to realize the situation was quickly degenerating into the  _ nightmare scenario: _ the panic of the civilians was quickly degenerating into mayhem, there had likely been other victims after the explosion of the Bag of Holding, and the boat was beginning to take on water.

“We need to leave,” Davenport realized immediately.

“But the Oculus-”

“We don’t know if it’s here, we can’t risk our lives over a-”

“MONSTER!” Somebody cried, stopping Davenport’s argument in a blast.

A humanoid beast, standing six feet tall, headless and skinless, like it was made of interwoven muscles, had started to toss people overboard, slamming its giant arms around with no apparent wit.

Angus recognized that construct. “He’s here! Jenkins is here! He made the meat monsters last time too!”

Davenport looked at the monster and at the kid in quick succession, before taking a deep breath. “What did he do next? If things are repeating, what did Jenkins do?”

Angus frowned, then his eyes widened in shock. “The captain…”

“You go check on him, I’m slamming that freak show down!” Jess shouted, summoning her axe and running at full speed towards the meat golem.

Davenport nodded and grabbed Angus’ wrist, running with him towards the helm. As they turned towards the door they found themselves in front of  _ another _ meat monster, looming over them. Davenport let go of Angus and prepared to cast a spell. “Kid, go! Warn the Captain!”

Angus gasped and, closing his eyes, hunched down and run under the monster’s legs, opening the door and slamming it close behind him. Without wasting any time, he ran up the short flight of stairs and burst into the cabin. “Captain! Davenport’s in danger! We need to get back to the islands! A Grand Relic is on board!”

The helmsman slowly turned around. The sunlight shimmered on his multi colored bowtie as he faced Angus and smiled slowly. “Is that so?” He adjusted the monocle on his face. “How dreadful.”

 

Angus’ heart wasn’t beating, but he still felt his blood freeze in his veins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter is the last part of this arc. This chapter is pretty short but it's rather intense and I love the ending, so I wanted to publish it as it is.


	8. Lead Us Out Of The Night - part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **TW: very light body horror (meat golems)**

Jenkins knew what he had to do from the moment he succeeded in the saving throw and saw the people around him go glass-eyed and fall under some kind of spell. He managed to move out of the way by heading towards the helm’s door.

_They were onto him, he knew it._ There was no escape, no land around them. Jenkins dove into his bag and took out the small golden monocle. _It was whispering to him, saying everything was going to be alright if he put it on._ Jenkins knew about the relics, about how those who wielded them lost their minds, but he wasn’t going to. He was smarter.

He put the Oculus on before he realized so, and suddenly his vision _cleared._ Everything he could imagine was _true._ He was the most powerful wizard who ever lived.

Smiling confidently, he walked into the helm. The Captain, an elf wearing a tricone hat, turned towards him.

“You shouldn’t be-”

Jenkins flicked his wrist and a pair of giant scissors materialized from thin air and snapped close, severing the Captain’s head in an instant. The body slumped down, the head rolled on the ground, but Jenkins wasn’t done with it.

Following his will, the blood and flesh congealed and expanded: both body and head warping and twisting in two masses of flesh. “Keep them out of here,” Jenkins ordered the golems, that slowly stumbled outside just as the ferry rocked under the weight of the contents of Leeman’s Bag of Holding being released.

“What now?” he frowned, just moments before someone ran in, slamming the door behind them. Jenkins tensed, but relaxed immediately when he realized the intruder was no more than a boy. A scrawny boy. He was fine.

“Captain! Davenport’s in danger! We need to get back to the islands! A Grand Relic is on board!” the boy cried.

Jenkins smiled: _it_ had been right. They were onto him. Well, fat chance, it was already too late. He grinned, knowing that even if the boy sneaked in he would have no way out. “Is that so? How dreadful.”

The kid froze, probably recognizing the Relic that Jenkins proudly donned. “Sir,” he spoke slowly, “there’s no need to fight. Hand over the Relic peacefully: you’ll live a much happier life without it.”

Of course a child, in obvious disadvantage, would resort to _words._ He was no danger to him, despite the insistent voice at the back of his head telling him to _kill._ “Child, you are confused, return to your parents while I do my job.”

-

Angus was having a _long_ day. Jenkins wasn’t dangerous, well, the Oculus might be but that was something to think about later. For now he only had one weapon to his side, the one he had always used: Angus needed Jenkins to underestimate him. “Sir, you’re fooling no one,” he continued his spiel, “least of all myself. You’re clever, but not terribly so when it comes to escaping under my radar during transit it would seem.” Angus smirked.

Jenkins glared at the kid, in a blink his condescending smile was gone. “Have we met?”

“In this world I suppose not,” Angus conceded, “I’m Angus McDonald, World’s Greatest Detective, and you, the Rockport Slayer, are under arrest." It didn’t matter there was actually no militia to _arrest_ him, but, _hell,_ it felt _good_ to say!

The elf cursed and gritted his teeth. “Fine,” he spat out. “You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight!” he waved his hand and half a dozen magic missiles manifested, homing on Angus.

The kid yelped. Running away was useless, in a burst of inspiration he ran _towards_ Jenkins, diving under his legs at the last moment so that he would be hurt by his own missiles. One still managed to graze Angus, burning his backside, but the pain was nothing compared to the satisfaction of hearing the shitty wizard howl in pain as he got hurt by his own spell. “You really are a shitty wizard, aren’t you?”

“You little-” Jenkins growled, trying to grab Angus with his bare hands. The kid grinned and slipped out of his grasp, but as he extended his hand to grab the Oculus off Jenkins’ face, he was thrown backwards by a wave of force. He slammed against the wall, looking up to see the small twister that formed around Jenkins was already disappearing. “What do you want with the Oculus?” the elf continued. “A puppy? A kitten? Perhaps a younger sibling to play with?” He grinned. “You turn around and go back to your parents and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Angus laughed, standing up. “None of those, unless you can help me go back to my dad, which you...can’t…” he gulped, feeling heavy under the distinct impression he just _fucked up._ “I- I don’t intend to use it, I just want to save the world. And I need all seven relics to do that!”

“Such a noble prospect,” Jenkins gave him a pitiful look. “But _you just betrayed what your heart really_ desires.” His voice sounded almost distorted when he said those words, almost as if he was voicing someone else’s thoughts. “Come with me! We find the Relics together, find your father and fix all of this.”

Angus grimaced: this was bad, if Jenkins succumbed to the thrall to this point it was going to be useless to try and reason with him. He hoped Davenport and Jess would come to his aid quickly. “The Oculus is a powerful thing. I’d only fall to its thrall alongside you. And you can’t _create_ my dad, that’s not how it works.”

Jenkins laughed, taking a step back. “I can create _anything,_ my boy! A ride. Safety. A storm. Anything that I can imagine!” He pointed at Angus. “Anything in my mind and anything in _yours_ as well.”

“No!” Angus shuddered, he felt the Thrall tugging on his mind. _Maybe he could use it, just once, to gain advantage over Jenkins._ He clenched his fists, focusing on the pain to distract himself from those thoughts.

“Very well, then,” Jenkins took two steps back and raised his wand to summon...what was he going to summon? He hesitated a moment, before a sick, twisted grin crossed his face.

Angus felt a weird sensation wash over him. _A mind reading spell?_ Or perhaps a _Charm?_ What did Taako say about resisting Charm spells, he knew he said something because for some reason he couldn’t stop thinking about it right now. A pinkish mist filled the helm, dancing at their feet and slowly coalescing into a figure.

“Angus,” a _painfully_ familiar voice called.

Angus’ head jerked up as he blinked quickly, trying to comprehend what was in front of him.

“Angus,” Taako was standing between him and Jenkins, giving Angus a weird look, almost like he was _disappointed_ for some reason. “What’s going on?”

Angus bit his lip. He _knew_ this wasn’t really him, it _couldn’t be._ But it looked so _real_ and his heart couldn’t take it. With a sob, he ran towards the figure and threw himself in its arms. He was _warm,_ he was _real._

Jenkins was grinning.

“Hello, son,” Taako hugged him back.

Angus froze. That was _wrong._ Taako called Angus a lot of things: _little man, my boy, kiddo_ or even _shithead,_ but never that, never something so lame and ordinary. Making an effort and feeling his heart being metaphorically torn from his chest, he ripped away from the illusion, looking at it with profound distrust and betrayal.

“Is something wrong?” Not Taako asked, sounding almost sad.

Angus wasn’t going to be fooled, but maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to pretend he did. He forced a laugh. “Uh, it’s just that you’ve just never called me that. It was a funny goof, sir!”

Predictably, Jenkins relaxed, his grin wider.

“Naturally,” Not Taako winked at Angus and smiled, approaching him. “So, what’re we doing here, pumpkin?”

Angus froze. _It was in his head,_ starting to sound like the real deal.

“Getting in trouble again, aren’t we?

It was a subtle illusion, no doubt caused by the pink mist, made more real by the Oculus, but still ultimately an illusion. Angus knew that, and yet…

_And yet…_

“No, sir…”

"Well then let's get out of here!" He held out his arms wide. "Best not to cause trouble right?"

Angus chuckled, then swallowed, taking a beat. “I’m the world’s greatest detective sir. You may be fine with just running away. But I’m ready to charge straight on. Besides, isn’t Causing Trouble your middle name?”

Not Taako laughed, "We aren't running? What would we be running from?" He cocked his head absolutely baffled. "You think your father is scared? You wound me."

Angus winced, yet another _wrong_ that hurt his heart and yet helped him to distinguish reality from the illusion.

“You’re a coward, sir, we know this.” He said quietly. “And Jenkins,” he spat the name out, “is the Rockport slayer. He holds the Oculus and is hellbent on destruction.”

"...Rockport was destroyed years ago my boy." Not Taako made a concerned expression and reached a hand forward to press it against Angus' forehead. "Are you alright, little man?"

Angus ripped himself away at the man’s touch once more. It was getting far harder to ignore the wrongness of it all. “I’m fine sir. I get were in a different timeline, but I don’t feel like explaining anything right now.”

Not Taako's ears lowered and he stared at Angus in concern. "You don't have to call me sir. I'm your father aren't I?" He paused. "You don't have to explain anything right now, but we should really leave. I don't want to cause trouble."

Angus shook his head. “That’s wrong.” Was all he could muster.

Not Taako's ears flicked up and he cocked his head again. "What's wrong?

“Y- you. _You’re_ wrong. All of you! It’s not right. Taako would never act like this! Any of it!”

The illusion stood up and towered almost menacingly over Angus’ thin frame. "I am your father." It snapped. "Now turn around and leave. You are bothering the captain."

That sent a twinge of fear through Angus. Just the tone. It reminded him of… _unpleasant times._ Before Taako, before the Bureau.  “He’s not the captain!” He pointed at Jenkins. “He probably killed him just like he did to the conductor of the Rockport Limited! Don’t you see?! It’s all wrong! You’re wrong!”

"Son" Not Taako raised its voice again. "Leave. This. Room. Now."

“Don’t _call_ me that!! I won’t! You’re. Not. _Real!”_ Tears streaming down his face, Angus looked at Jenkins once more. “Taako would never act like this! He- he’s the one who threw me off a train and threatened to destroy me when I learned a new spell without his help! He calls me mean names and plays keepaway with my books! But he would never _order_ me, never really hurt me for no purpose!”

“What the hell is going on here?”

Focused on the illusion and the conversation that was going down, neither Jenkins nor Angus had noticed Davenport finally making it to the helm. The gnome was staring at the scene with a horrified expression. “Angus...come away from that...thing…” he said _very slowly,_ extending a hand towards the kid.

Angus’ heart skipped a beat. Suddenly, the illusion completely shattered: standing in his way there wasn’t Taako, not even anything remotely humanoid, but a creature of flesh and smoke haphazardly put together like some kind of twisted meat puppet. He screamed, raising his book to cast Firebolt at the creature and stumbled back towards Davenport, tears in his eyes.

The gnome quickly took Angus’ hand and tugged him behind himself. “Are you alright?”

Angus wasn’t sure what to answer, what would be the best answer. In the end, he shook his head anyways, _he wasn’t alright._

“Did he hurt you?” Davenport asked again, his eyes now completely focused on Jenkins and the Oculus.

“Only a magic missile…” he said quietly.

Davenport nodded. “Can you cast Mage Hand?”

Angus blinked and nodded, although confused.

“Good,” Davenport smiled, “You’ll know when to cast it.”

Angus’ legs shook and collapsed under his weight when Davenport left his hand to walk slowly towards Jenkins. The gnome held both his hands behind his back in a confident pose, despite his height. “So, you are Jenkins. My name is Captain Drew Davenport of the Starblaster Mission, and it just so happens I’m the creator of the Grand Relic you are currently in possession of.”

Behind a faint layer of skepticism, a brief expression of fear flashed on the elf’s face.

Davenport extended a hand. “Give me the Oculus, Jenkins, and I’ll make sure you get back on land safely with everyone else.”

Jenkins snarled, the meat monster mimicked him, making a harsh, grating noise. “How about I _don’t_ do that and you leave while I still feel like letting you.”

Davenport sighed. That Intimidation roll went _badly._ “You’re not scary, Jenkins.”

“I can change that,” he adjusted the Oculus.

“If you continue to use it, the Grand Relic _will_ destroy you,” Davenport raised his wand and prepared to cast another spell, walking slowly in a circle to take away Jenkin’s attention from Angus. “You have to know by not how holders of Grand Relics always get their prizes taken away at some point, and are _killed.”_

Jenkins barked a dry laugh. “Are you going to kill me, little one?”

Davenport twitched. _He just might,_ he thought, _he just might._ “You’ll never have the Oculus forever. Just give it up while you still have the chance to live a normal life.”

“Sounds great, except,” Jenkins’ eyes darted back to Angus and he pointed his finger towards him. “I’ve never had a normal life.”

The meat monster growled and charged towards Angus.

“No!” Davenport called, but Jenkins had taken his eyes off him, even if just for a moment, and that was enough. With a swirl of his wand and free hand, he cast Mental Prison on Jenkins.

From the elf’s expression it was clear the spell succeeded: Jenkins looked around frantically in fear. The monster stopped in its tracks just before attacking Angus and looked around in confusion until its eyes settled on its creator and _roared._

“Angus, now!” Davenport called, keeping his concentration on the spell.

Angus extended his book like a shield and a spectral hand formed out of it, extending towards Jenkins and swiftly ripping the monocle from his face to drop it back in Angus’ hands. “I got it, sir!”

“Good, let’s get the _fuck_ out of here!” Davenport exclaimed, running towards the exit just as the meat golem, out of control, slammed an arm down on Jenkins’ head.

Angus darted outside. The ship was slowly sinking, people panicking and diving into the sea after the golems’ attack. “What now?”

Davenport frowned and looked around. “Kid, you’re allowed to knock me out if this goes badly.” He extended a hand out to him. “Give me the Oculus.”

Angus’ eyes went wide, but after a moment he slowly complied, dropping the small yet powerful Relic in Davenport’s hands.

There was a moment of silence, after Davenport wore the Oculus, then a slow humm and the sea started shaking and all around the ferry, _safety boats,_ shaped like seashells, emerged from the waters. Davenport coughed and cast Thaumaturgy to make his voice boom louder. “Everyone! Get on the boats! They will bring you back to land!”

People started pushing and running to get on the seashells, eager to escape the nightmare the ferry had become. Davenport and Angus went last, getting on a small boat that Davenport created just for them.

“I wonder what happened to Jess,” Angus said as they slowly drifted away from the now empty sinking boat.

“Hopefully, she got on one of those boats and is headed back to the mainland,” Davenport took off the Oculus with shaking hands and gave it back to Angus.

The kid grinned, the (mixed) success of their mission finally dawning on him. “We did it…” he looked at Davenport in awe, “We recovered a Relic! It’s possible, see?!”

Davenport sighed and steered the boat. “We got _one._ There’s still five more out there and I don’t know where they are. Also, we risked a lot on this mission. We need to be more careful from now on.”

“W- well,” Angus tried to keep smiling. “I was hired by Mad- by Lucretia to _seek_ the Grand Relics, I know what to look for! And we can look for Taako, Magnus and Merle! They’ll help us recover them like they did before!”

Davenport smiled bitterly. “That was your timeline, though. It seems there are a lot of differences and I...wouldn’t put it past Taako, Magnus and Merle to refuse outright to help us. But...yeah, we’re going to ask them, if anything.”

“They will!” Angus pouted. After that whole ordeal, he _really_ wanted to see Taako again. “They don’t always act like it, but they’re good people. In my world, at least.”

Davenport stared at the water. “Where am I...in your world?”

Angus hesitated. He didn’t want to tell him about the pitiful state the voidfish put him in. “You’re out there adventuring. Exploring every corner of this world. Sometimes, Merle comes with you, but he’s mostly with his kids in Bottlenose Cove. He’s an _Earl_ there, you know? Earl Merle...ugh, the more I say the stupider it sounds…”

Davenport burst out laughing. “It doesn’t...sound half bad…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ends the Oculus arc. Next time: Merle.


End file.
